


























ClassJPX^ 

Copyright N® 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 










THE GIEL WHO KEPT UP 




























I 


4 


» 


.A 


* 


r 





~c 


> V 


4 


4 





4 


I • , • 


» 

t 

i 


4 • 


\ 


. r ' 

#4 I ♦ ^ 

VN . 


I 


% 


1 

• * 




I 



• • 



t 


4 


% 


* 

1 


t 


4 1 

* 1 ^. 










► 


« 




k 




y I 


I 


i mt 


4 


if*' 



And Miss Marg-ie Dean is going- to try for it?”— Poge 93 . 







The Girl Who kept Up 


BY 

MAKY McCKAE CULTER 


ILLUSTRATED BY C. LOUISE WILLIAMS 





BOSTON 

LEE AND SHEPARD 
1903 


rz *3 


THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS. 

Two Copies Received 

JUN 13 1903 

^ Copyright Entry 

ZjuJr, 

CLASS ^ XXc. No, 

S’ ^ ^ ^ 

COPY B. 


COPTRIQHT, 1903, BY LeE AND SbEPABO 
Published August, 1903 

AU righU reserved 

The Gibl Who Kept Up 


< < < < , < < 
. c to < ( 


t < < c c . c t 

<. C ( f (, 4 . 


< t << < 

c < < 

f <• f «, • 

< ( ♦ ♦ 

^ « c « * t < 


♦ ♦ ♦ s < < I < 

« ( t % 

««.€(< C 
« C 1 < 

C # € « < <• 


i c 

« 

f 

( ( 


< ( c 
< 

( c 
< 

C € < 






CONTENTS 


CHAPTER I PAGE 

Some Opinions 7 

CHAPTER II 

Pulling Hard against the Stream 20 

CHAPTER III 

Counter Currents 34 

CHAPTER IV 

Mountains, or Molehills? 51 

CHAPTER V 

Life Questions 66 

CHAPTER VI 

For Harvey’s Sake 81 

CHAPTER VII 

Improved Opportunities 96 

CHAPTER VIII 

A Hew Motive 107 

CHAPTER IX 

Comparisons 1^1 


6 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTEE X 

Eetrospection 134 

CHAPTEE XI 

A Proven Case 152 

CHAPTEE XII 

From Different Standpoints 166 

CHAPTEE XIII 

Changed Conditions 180 

CHAPTEE XIV 

Eevelations 193 

CHAPTEE XY 

Eetribntion 208 

CHAPTEE XVI 

An Unfortunate Plea 220 

CHAPTEE XVII 

Hot Parallels, but Divergents 235 

CHAPTEE XVIII 

A Foregone Conclusion 252 

CHAPTEE XIX 

Eeadjustments 270 

CHAPTEE XX 

Gathered Threads 283 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

“ And Miss Margie Dean is going to try for it ? ” 

{Frontispiece) 93 

Harve was “cramming for exams,” and so would she . . 34 

“ Shall I tell you what I did when I was in your fix ? ” . 63 ^ 

The girls unpacked and arranged their belongings . . . 102 

“ Margie is not a common girl ; I wish you knew her ” . 133*^ 

“ I have not had a letter from her since she left home ” . 

“ And you — are Maggie Dean ? ” 197 

“ There is one that has haunted me all these years ” . . 286 






. y ■ • 


V, ' 









i 


f » • 

li' -' 





% 4 

V* • • ; 

■'' t\,'. t 




• *i*A* 


- • Ar- : 

MHS* ^ 


% I 



^•ryy. '>:•? ‘ •/ 

fr'i?':; >-.*•: V- 

t:* V \ ‘ ^ r 

'f- : 



i - j ; 


V. 

*♦ 


» ’• 

I t 


V^ 




i 


" i » 




,, ■ ■ ■ - X.i',->; 

'^V . ^ /' -* 



s • ^ 

S ' 


X*'. 

« 


. y‘ • >/ \V 




ri *”'k 

• ‘1 


^ ' 




.4^ 




/f 


- ■> ' 






#’1 







%.*-' 

‘■"H. 



k •-. *••• 

f 


I 


I . 


V' # 
^ , 


/-; • ■ 


c^- 

• • 

■^ * .. 


K 

■^* ; 
/“ V 


1 '> •' : 

# '. • ' ^ ■ "i 


% « 

% 

« 




% 

.> 


►k 

V*>‘? '. ^ 

. A# ,-•' 3 ^ 


J » .bWV •' * . . f ^ , . 

i \ ■ ; ^f'-'>^:’ :;V . ' 

f ■ ■■ ■"•■H;V ■ •^' ■:•■ ■- 



•‘* ",-'7t>y. i-' 


. I 

■4 

■'3 








» 

*. 


p} < 

* : » ^ '•• 




U f 


, ' V' ^ •' -V / •• V. -^• 




THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

CHAPTER I 

SOME OPINIONS 

“ This is the last time I shall open the 
gate for you for a long time, Maggie. I^m 
afraid you will forget all about me before 
long, and be letting some of the other boys 
open the gates for you.’^ 

‘‘ No, I’ll not. Indeed I’ll not. Why do 
you talk so to me, Harve? Don’t you know 
that I don’t care anything for any of the 
other boys?” 

But you do for me? Say it, sweetheart, 
before I let you in.” The curly brown head 
was bent close to the girl’s dark hair, and 
the blue eyes eagerly searched her face. 

There was a troubled look in the dark 
eyes raised to meet his, as Maggie said 
reproachfully : 


7 


8 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

You know I care for you, Harve, for IWe 
told you so over and over. Why do you talk 
that way to me? You are the one to make 
promises. When you get away out in the 
world you will soon forget this little back- 
woods town ; and you will learn all sorts of 
things that we don’t even dream of here, and 
grow clear away from us. Then you’ll meet 
smart, pretty girls there at college, and will 
forget poor Maggie Dean — or only remem- 
ber her to be ashamed of her. No,” she 
added, with a little passionate gesture, I 
know you don’t think so now, but that’s 
only because I know as much as you do. 
Just wait two or three years till you get 
polished off while I grow rusty.” 

She leaned her head against the great 
gate-post, while despairing tears crept from 
her eyes. 

Don’t cry, Maggie. Please don’t. I 
can’t bear to see you feel so. I almost wish 
father had never consented to my going 
away to school. What shall I ever do with- 
out you ? I shall not know how to study by 


SOME OPINIONS 


9 


myself, for we^ve always studied together. 
Oh, Maggie, dear, you need not be afraid I 
shall ever forget you. I shall only be count- 
ing the days till I can see you again.” 

He had put his arm around her, and was 
wiping the tears from her eyes : and Maggie 
felt comforted in spite of the dull fear that 
was tugging at her heart-strings. 

‘‘ And we’ll w^rite to one another every 
week. Oh, what a delight your letters will 
be ! And before we know it, almost, the time 
will fly by, and I shall be at home again.” 

Will you write me all about how you 
stand your entrance examinations, and just 
what you have to study? I shall want to 
keep track of how far I am getting left be- 
hind ” — this last with a sad tone. 

I can never leave you behind ! ” he cried 
impetuously. 

Oh, how little you do know ! ” she ex- 
claimed. You are excited over going into 
strange places and among strange people. 
You cannot realize the change it will make 
in you, nor how fast your brain will be pol- 


10 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

ished when it comes in contact with wits 
sharper than your own. You will not feel 
^:he change so much. But, oh, Harve, how 
I shall miss you ! Someway I feel as if this 
would be the last time we should ever walk 
up this lane together.” 

Her tears were falling fast, and her sor- 
row communicated itself to the young man 
beside her. To prevent the weakness of 
tears he took refuge in anger. 

Eeally, Maggie, you act as if I were a 
child with no mind of my own. If you cared 
as much for me as you say you do, you 
would not insult me with such doubts. 
Besides, nine months is no eternity.” 

It may not be to you, but I’m sure it will 
be to me,” she answered piteously. Then 
his anger melted awey, and he was not 
ashamed of the tears that fell as he bade her 
a tender good-by. 

I must go now,” he said at last. “ It is 
nearly midnight, and we have to leave at 
three o’clock in the morning to catch the 
boat. Good-by, sweetheart.” 


SOME OPINIONS 


11 


A moment more, and he was gone, and the 
girl stood alone at the gate beneath the tall 
Lombardy poplar trees. She looked after 
him until he passed out of the lane ; then 
she turned and ran into the house, and up to 
the solitude of her own room. She threw 
herself into a chair before the window, and 
leaned out into the moonlight, straining 
her eyes and ears, if by chance she might 
catch one glimpse of him, or hear the sound 
of his footstep. But she saw nothing save 
the glint of moonbeams and the shadow of 
the poplars, and heard nothing but the low, 
sad notes of a whip-poor-will. With a de- 
spairing sob she buried her face in her arms 
upon the window sill, and wept long and 
bitterly. 

She had loved this handsome boy ever 
since babyhood. They had grown up, 
played, and studied together. Their chief 
pleasure had been in one another’s society. 
Now, the first break in their lives had come. 

Mr. St. Clair had determined to spare no 
expense in educating his only son, and the 


12 TEE OIRL WHO KEPT UP 

boy was to leave home for college the next 
morning. Harvey was an eager, ambitious 
fellow, keen to see and quick to learn. In 
the district school he had ranked first in his 
class ; but Maggie Dean had ever been close 
behind him in scholarship, and in many 
things had ranked ahead of him. She was 
as keen and quick as he, and their friendly 
rivalry had formed a strong bond between 
them, and set them apart from their less 
ambitious companions and schoolmates. 

Now he was going where he would have 
every incentive to strive for a brilliant suc- 
cess, while she would be left with no one to 
help or spur her forward. The loneliness of 
it already oppressed her, and with it came 
the burdening fear that he would grow so 
far away from her that they could never 
again enjoy the old firm, sympathetic 
friendship. 

Her tears wept themselves out, but she 
was too heartsick to sleep ; so she sat at her 
window wrapped in unhappy thought till 
the moon sank far toward the west, and the 


SOME OPINIONS 


13 


whip-poor-will hushed his song. All at once 
she heard a faint rattle of wagon-wheels, 
and with a cry leaned again from the win- 
dow, and listened while the sounds came 
nearer and nearer, passed the end of the 
lane, and died away in the distance — down 
the river road. Harvey had gone — and she 
was left behind ! 

I will not be left behind ! I will not be 
left! You shall not grow away from me, 
Harvey. We may not be together, but I 
will study — oh, how I will study! — to keep 
even with you. Father cannot afford to 
send me away to school, but he will buy me 
the books, and when Harve comes home, 
won^t I surprise him?’’ 

The thought was comforting. She had 
been pacing the floor in her excitement. 
Now she threw herself upon her bed and 
studied ardently over her plan until the 
heavy lids fell over her eyes, and she forgot 
sorrow and ambition in blessed sleep. 

The whole village was interested in the 
departure of young St. Clair. The bright. 


14 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

pleasant fellow had always been a favorite 
in the community, and everyone took an 
especial interest in his welfare. It was the 
first time that anyone had ever gone away 
from Sharon to the wonderful place called 
college/’ of which most of the villagers had 
very vague and unfavorable ideas. The 
morning after the young man’s departure 
a group of loungers had collected at the 
blacksmith shop, and, of course, there was 
but one topic of conversation. 

I don’t see any sense in it,” remarked 
one man. Harve St. Clair is a smart fel- 
low, and he already knows more’n his old 
dad in the way of book-learnin’. He’s been 
plumb through the ’rithmetic over an’ over : 
and nobody stands any show in spellin’- 
matches when he takes the floor — savin’, of 
course, Maggie Dean. That’s education 
enough for any feller. He can farm, or keep 
store, like his dad, or even teach school, 
’ithout wastin’ time and money teamin’ all 
these fool contraptions that they teach in 
colleges.” 


SOME OPINIONS 


15 


That’s what’s the matter, Dixon. You’re 
mighty level-headed. There is some sense in 
this phizzology that they teach — about the 
bones and all that — in case a feller wants 
to be a doctor. But this here algebray that 
Harv^e’s been a-studyin’ is plumb nonsense 
to my notion. Don’t do nobody no good. 
He’d better put in the time figgerin’ on how 
much lumber there is in a saw-log, 'or how 
many boards it will take to build a house. 
That’s what I call wuth knowin’ ; ” this from 
the village carpenter. 

Book-learnin’ don’t teach a feller how to 
plow a straight furrow, nor what to do for 
hog cholery, nor whether to cut your perta- 
ters with one eye or two, nor the best time o’ 
the moon to plant your truck. That there’s 
practical knowledge,” remarked an old 
farmer. 

Nor how to shoe a horse, or make a weld, 
or sharp a shear,” chimed in the blacksmith, 
who did not wish to be behind his comrades 
in airing his views of what was most worth 
knowing. 


16 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

Then,” rejoined the first speaker, 
these here colleges is jest the ruination of 
every young feller as goes into ^em. Put a 
gang of youngsters together that-a-way, an’ 
what meanness one don’t know another ’ll 
teach him, an’ ’taint long till the hull lot is 
a drinkin’, swearin’, card-playin’ outfit, 
ready fer the State’s prison. I’d think a 
hull lot an’ a long while before I’d let a boy 
of mine go to sech a place as that. Well, 
St. Clair ’ll see it some of these days, when 
it’s too late, an’ then he’ll wish he hadn’t 
hey give the youngster his head. That’s all 
I’ve got to say.” 

“ It’s a plumb waste of good money,” said 
the farmer emphatically. “ Take what St. 
Clair ’ll hev to spend on that boy for one 
year, an’ put it into shoats, an’ — with the 
grain an’ pasture he’s got — it ’ud make him, 
mebbe two thousand dollars in a year. Jest 
think o’ that! Two thousand dollars to 
teach a boy a hull lot o’ fool nonsense, an’ 
make him too big-headed to see his next-door 
neighbor.” 


SOME OPINIONS 


17 

No. I don’t believe Harve St. Clair will 
ever be such a feller as that,” replied the 
other, for the boy’s got a good head on 
him. Still, one can’t never tell how such 
experiments will turn out. My doctrine is 
this — keep your children at home, where 
you can see what they’re a-learnin’ and who 
they’re a-learnin’ it from.” 

One never gains nothin’ when he tries to 
make somethin’ of himself that the Lord 
never intended him to be. That boy was 
born right here in this valley, an’ that is 
proof enough that here is where the Lord 
wanted him to stay. He needn’t look for 
any blessin’ ef he takes himself out of the 
Lord’s hands that-a-way,” said the farmer. 

Now, neighbor Jones, I think you’re a 
leetle off there. Ef you’ll reecollect, you 
was born in this valley too ; but you’ve went 
off over the Ridge an’ bought a farm in Buck 
Creek Township, an’ I can’t see but the 
Lord’s prospered you fairly well,” inter- 
rupted the carpenter. The little group 
laughed heartily over this turn on their com- 


18 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

rade, and he could not but acknowledge that 
he was fairly caught. 

^ After the laugh had subsided, he said : 

Well, leavin’ that out of the question, 
do you think Harve will gain anything in 
the long run by goin’ and educatin’ himself 
above his place? Don’t you believe it will 
only make him restless and discontented, 
and unfit fer his home and the life he’ll hev 
to lead? Won’t Sharon look purty small to 
him when he comes back? An’ won’t he all 
the time be sizin’ us up alongside o’ them 
smart chaps he’ll meet at college? Why, I 
’low even Maggie Dean won’t be no company 
fer him when he gets back, an’ we all know 
he thinks now that the sun rises an’ sets in 
that girl. No, no,” — with a gloomy shake 
of the head, — I’m afraid it ’ll be the plumb 
spilin’ o’ that boy.” 

There’s a deal o’ sense in that. Brother 
Jones. Ef your foot-rule is too long your 
boards will alius measure too short, an’ ef 
your peck measure’s too big you’ll soon spile 
a bushel. It’s the same way with every- 


SOME OPINIONS 


19 


thing else. There’s a kerrect measure for 
ever’ place and ever’body, an’ ef you go to 
mixin’ measures there hain’t nothing as will 
size up right.” 

a There’s where the trouble will come in 
with Harve. He’ll come back here with his 
college measure, an’ everything’s bound to 
come out too big or too little. Aint it bound 
to fret the life out of him, an’ make him mis- 
er’ble? Does the Lord mean fer us to mix 
measures that-a-way? Aint the miser’ble- 
ness a proof that He don’t take no stock in 
it? ” The carpenter looked around trium- 
phantly, but the farmer was ready for him. 

‘‘ Now you’re the one that’s otf. Ef the 
miserableness of people is a sign that they’re 
out o’ their places an’ runnin’ agin the 
Lord’s will, there’s an awful sight o^ strays 
in the world. Seems like lots of folks was 
born miserable, and there’s some that aint 
happy unless they’re miserable an’ growl- 
ing. ■’Pears like we’re gittin’ into purty 
deep water. Air you all right sure you kin 
swim?” 


CHAPTER II 


PULLING HARD AGAINST THE STREAM 

For more tliaii a week after Harvey’s de- 
parture Maggie pondered over her scheme 
for study. She and Harvey had spent much 
time studying together while he was cram- 
ming” for entrance examinations, Maggie 
taking the part of examiner, and question- 
ing him over all the hardest ground. In 
this way she had become as well informed 
as he, and felt that if she had but the chance 
she could stand quite as good an examina- 
tion. 

When his first letter came she slipped off 
to their favorite seat in the orchard to read 
it. It was a long letter, filled with a minute 
description of his trip up the river, his short 
visit in the great city, his journey by rail, 
his meeting with fellow-students by the way, 
and his introduction to his college home. 
There was a full description of the main col- 
20 


PULLING HARD AGAINST THE STREAM 21 

lege buildings, the dormitories, thebeautiful 
campus with velvety lawns shaded by majes- 
tic elms. He even drew a little map of the 
town and the college grounds, and a plan of 
the various buildings, that she might fol- 
low him tlirough every hour of the day. He 
told her of the rules and customs of the col- 
lege, so far as he had learned them, de- 
scribed his room and room-mate, the presi- 
dent and various professors of the college. 
He had not taken his examinations when he 
wrote, but promised her a list of the ques- 
tions and a report of his success. There 
were many tender words, expressions of 
homesickness and of longing for one glimpse 
of her face, and assurances of how he missed 
her already in his studies, that were balm to 
the heart of the girl who read them. 

How she lived in that letter through the 
days that followed, and how eagerly she 
looked forward to the coming of the next 
one! Her studies were redoubled. All her 
spare moments were spent in reviewing. 

If he sends me the questions I will take 


22 THE GIRL WHO KEPT VP 

the examination myself, and then I can see 
how near we stand together,’^ she told her- 
self. 

Her time for study was not nearly so 
abundant as she desired, for her step-mother 
claimed the larger part of her days. Maggie 
was the only child of her father’s first mar- 
riage, and had been seven years of age when 
her mother died. After passing a year as a 
widower Mr. Dean had married again. His 
second wife was a stirring, energetic woman 
who believed her duty to her step-daughter 
was done when she had properly fed and 
clothed her. She cared nothing for books, 
but saw to it that Maggie was thoroughly 
instructed in the principles of domestic sci- 
ence. She expended no love upon the child, 
but was kind to her, and took pride in all 
her attainments as a housekeeper. She de- 
lighted to boast : Maggie kin bake as good 
a batch of bread as I kin.” Or : Maggie 

is awful handy with her needle.” Or: 

When it comes to preservin’ an’ picklin’, 
she can jest hold her own with any girl.” 


PULLING HARD AGAINST THE STREAM 23 

Mr. Dean alone took interest in the girPs 
mental attainments. He encouraged her in 
every possible way, and when at length in 
a ciphering-match he saw her cipher 
the school down,’’ it was one of the proudest 
moments of his life. There was a strong 
bond of affection between the father and 
daughter, which grew with the years and 
increased with her stature. Three other 
children came to be loved and cared for, but 
Maggie was the father’s favorite. 

So it was that, in planning for her future 
studies, Maggie felt sure that she would 
have her father’s sympathy and assistance. 
She said nothing to anyone in regard to 
her ambitions, for she was waiting until 
Harvey wrote in regard to his studies, so 
that she would know what books she should 
need. How she did work through those long, 
hot September days ! There was the regular 
housework and care of the children, which 
she and her step-mother had always divided 
between them. But, in addition, the late 
peaches were ripe, and there was a vast 


24 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

amount of canning, preserving, pickling, 
and peach-butter making. For, you know, 
next year may not be a peach year, so we^d 
best put up a-plenty while we’ve got ’em,” 
said her thrifty step-mother. 

Then there were the apples. Maggie 
thought there never before had been so many 
ways of putting them up. Here was her 
step-mother’s strong point, her fad ” in 
housekeeping. Her one ambition was to 
have the clearest jellies, the richest pre- 
serves, the thickest fruit-butters, the largest 
and most perfect array of canned fruits, of 
any woman in the neighborhood. So 
through all the long, hot summer days she 
toiled and broiled over the hot stove, and 
found her reward when at night, worn and 
weary, she sat down and looked at the 
array of glasses and jars upon her kitchen 
table. 

Maggie toiled with her ; but while the girl 
took pride in her ability to make the various 
sweets, she grew very tired of it. Her 
heart was in her books, and she won- 


PULLING HARD AGAINST THE STBEA3I 25 

dered how anyone could willingly prefer 
to “ pickle and preserve the brains which 
the Lord meant for her to use in higher 
ways.’’ Her brain grew very weary and re- 
volted at the task; but she wisely kept her 
rebellious feelings to herself. In every pos- 
sible way she strove to please her step- 
mother, knowing that in this way she might 
perhaps prevent her opposition to her fu- 
ture studies. She knew that Mrs. Dean 
considered the money spent for books as a 
dead loss, and she also well knew that the 
ones she expected to purchase would prob- 
ably be more expensive than those which she 
had previously used. 

At length Harvey’s second letter came. It 
was not so long as the first, for the student 
had settled down to regular work and had 
less time on his hands. Then, too, the lone- 
liness and homesickness were wearing off. 
He was finding in his classmates a substi- 
tute for Maggie’s help and sympathy. But 
his affection for the girl was undiminished, 
and he wrote as ardently as he had done at 


20 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

first. He gave her a full account of his 
studies, the hours required, and the length 
of the lessons. He also sent copies of the 
questions asked in his written examina- 
tions. 

Then Maggie’s work began. She wrote 
out answers to all the questions, and was 
overjoyed to find, by consulting her books 
afterward, that she should have passed ” 
very creditably. Her trouble now lay in 
the fact that through lack of the necessary 
books she was falling behind Harvey, who 
was already well advanced in his studies. 

I wish, father, that you an’ Maggie 
would gather them golden pippins this 
morning. I want part of ’em for preserves 
and some for spiced apples. I’ll be ready 
to tend to ’em by the time you get ’em gath- 
ered,” said Mrs. Dean one morning. 

Maggie hailed the opportunity with secret 
delight. Now she could have the long-de- 
ferred talk with her father in regard to her 
ambitions. So as soon as they were alone 
in the orchard she told him the whole story 


PULLING HARD AGAINST THE STREAM 27 

of what she had already done, and of what 
she aimed to do. 

The books will cost considerable money, 
I expect,^^ she said in conclusion, for we’ll 
have to send to the city for them. But I 
thought maybe if I did without any new 
dress or hat this winter, that you and mother 
would be willing to let me have the money 
to spend for books instead.” 

But, Maggie, how can you ever study 
them by yourself ? There hain’t nobody 
here to teach you, and I don’t suppose a slip 
of a girl could study them out by herself, 
else what’s the use of colleges at all?” 
asked her father thoughtfully. 

I’ve studied over all that,” answered 
Maggie. You know Preacher Morris 
helped Harve and me with the Latin last 
summer when he was studying for examina- 
tion, and I thought perhaps he would help 
me out with the Latin and Greek when I 
got in a hard place. The mathematics will 
be the most difhcult, but I will try hard to 
get through them alone. I can’t do any 


28 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

worse than fail, and I may succeed — I mil 
succeed ! I won’t be left behind ! ” she cried 
with sudden desperation. 

Her father looked at her with eyes filled 
with mingled pride and pity. He was 
proud of her overwhelming energy and her 
high ambition. In his heart he believed that 
she would accomplish the task which she 
had set for herself. But beyond this was pity 
for the girl who he felt sure was destined 
to meet with sorrow and disappointment. 
He studied carefully over his words. At 
last he said slowly : 

‘‘ There’s more than one way of being left 
behind, Maggie. You may keep up with 
Harve in your books, and yet not keep up 
with him in many other things. Harve is 
out in the world where he will see and learn 
things that aint in books — things that we 
can never dream of here in this quiet little 
town. I don’t know what it is — I can’t de- 
scribe it or understand it — but there is a 
difference between such people as us and 
those that has knocked about an’ seen the 


PULLING HARD AGAINST THE STREAM 29 

world. It hain’t book-leamin’, it hain’t 
fine clothes — ^it’s jest something that makes 
you feel your own littleness a great deal 
more than you do their greatness. You 
don’t seem to think much o’ them, but you 
think a good deal less of yourself ; and you 
may neither admire them nor want to be 
like them, and yet you wish you were dif- 
ferent from what you are. It’s such things 
as that, that people learn and don’t know 
that they’re a-learnin’ them, but it sticks to 
’em all the same, and never leaves ’em. Do 
I make you understand? ” 

It was the same undefinable fear that 
Maggie had felt the night Harvey had left, 
only she had found no words in which to 
express it. Now the burden came back to 
her heart. She had unbounded confidence 
in her father’s judgment, and felt that he 
was right; still she rebelled against the 
thought. She could not bear to believe that 
Harvey would ever grow away from her — 
she would not have it so! So now she re- 
sisted her father’s words. 


30 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

That may be with some people, but it 
won^t be so with Harve. He never will get 
to feel himself bigger than other people in 
such ways as that. All he looks at is what 
they do with their brains. I just must keep 
up with him ! Oh, father, I shall just die if 
I get left behind ! Her eyes were full of 
despairing tears, and her voice ended with 
a sob. 

A great ache was in her father^s throat, 
as he looked into her pleading eyes, and 
heard the note of pain that had already 
found place in her heart. 

There, there, child ! ” he said, placing 
his hand tenderly on her head. I didn’t 
mean to discourage you or make you feel 
bad. I’m proud of your grit, and I’m sure 
you’ll succeed with your lessons, for I never 
knew my Maggie to fail. All I meant was 
to warn you agin’ havin’ your heart set too 
much on Harve. He’s a nice, good boy, and 
he means to do right; but there’s no telling 
how a person will change, unless you know 
fer shore who he’s a-goin’ to pattern after. 


PULLING HARD AGAINST TEE STREAM 31 

But keep up your courage, and do your 
part. You shall have your books, and I 
^low Harve ’ll have to do an awful sight o’ 
studyin’ to get ahead of you. Now come, 
let’s take these apples to the house, or your 
maw ’ll be out of humor with us for bein’ 
SO slow.” 

As Maggie had anticipated, her step- 
mother vigorously opposed the spending of 
any money for such “ foolishness ” as Greek 
and Latin books. She could not under- 
stand why anyone should want to waste 
time over any such useless things that never 
were known to benefit anybody. For her 
part, she never had felt the need of them; 
and she believed she was as good a house- 
keeper as there was in the valley. Still, if 
Mr. Dean chose to spend his money that 
way, and Maggie wanted to waste her time 
over such nonsense, she had no more to 
say. 

So the books were bought, and Maggie 
settled down to hard study. Every spare 
moment was spent over her lessons ; but her 


32 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

progress was slow. There was no one to 
explain the hard problems in mathematics, 
or straighten out the irregular construction 
of her sentences. There was no class of 
eager, ambitious students to spur her for- 
ward by sympathy or rivalry. There was 
nothing to enliven the monotony of the dig, 
dig, that became so wearisome through the 
feeling of hopelessness that so often at- 
tended it. 

Her time was broken up by her step- 
mother's frequent demands for assistance, 
and often she was physically so weary 
that her brain could not master its appoint- 
ed task. After receiving one of Harvey’s 
letters, ambition would be aroused, and new 
energy developed, so that her studies were 
more of a delight; but after a few days the 
drag would return, and then progress was 
slow. Sometimes she threw down her books 
in despair, saying to herself: 

It’s no use. I might just as well give up 
first as last. I can’t learn them alone. If 
Harve were only here to study with me, I 


PULLING HARD AGAINST THE SI 


could do it, but he is gone, and there is noth- 
ing for me but to fall behind.” Then her 
spirit would fly to arms, and snatching up 
her book again she would cry: 

But I will keep up.” 


CHAPTER III 


COUNTER CURRENTS 

Autumn and winter glided away. Spring 
came and went, and Maggie’s heart was in a 
tumult of joy; for with the June roses Har- 
vey would return. The thought glorified her 
waking hours, and was the soul of her 
dreams. In his last letter he had said : 

“ This is probably the last letter I shall 
get time to write to you. There is such a 
rush of cramming for the exams, and prac- 
ticing for the Oratoricals, and so many Beta 
Theta Pi duties and pleasures, that every 
minute of the next three weeks seems to be 
already taken up. But even if I do not write, 
remember that my heart is with you, and I 
will count the days till I can see you again.” 

So she smiled to herself, sang little bits 
of song over her work,conjugated verbs over 
the washtub, and recited geometric theorems 
over the baby’s cradle. Harve was cram- 
34 



“cramming for exams,” 

P(i(je 34. 


Harve was 


and so would she. 




i.. ■ 'W «r » 2 . I I ^kJ 




,"-.Y^* =■ ^> 


> I • ,‘ -. ^ j^- fl , A':,i-„ * V Mw. ' ■• 

iaW . ' ?>'i S».:. .» • -»' !'■ ' * ^ ' 'Mi 

^^^DESnSr *4 V-* 

■• 'W •"■^' - •••. >' ’j^' - 1 “^ 




'5®s¥^ 

-2 


' * 'V'P^**-* 


V V 

Vr «K u'* 4 


f J l"-i 





0 

. V :■* . 


•» *• • 

> 


, ■ 

1 

•‘ . • 

t . 

'■,: 'f^ r 

IT" 

1 ^ 

> . 

t 

* • -■ ' J 

i 

J " I 

« 

« 


'v 


yr..‘, " 

• - _ »•. •- ‘ 

. - * '»'* 

i.-5s 

. A - 

. i_ ^ * 

'.f • 


J . - * . 

• 

***^ T’ 

- 1 



4* 

■ f ' . V 

• •* •^ 4 ■ 


♦ - • 


•• ( 


--' % 

m 


t'' -* 

% 





»!.« 


^ ^ ■ *^1 

fe f- •- 

: *5 ' 7 ^ 

V' ... v'-'- "i'.lf 

A » * <• ■*■ ^ • ' 


,jjjU, 




* > 


A.rL^’X 


r • ■ •=.a£v 



‘^I'J’.:'" . ; ■$« 






r. w • »? ' -t* * T- - 1 =v • 

ga ; F?- _ in is.>>i.*^-j';3 



• •’-<ir i*. 'ity? - ' • . w -' 


r^ 


"■ --1; *■.' 



: 12 


‘4 -» * > * 

. > - .-; . • 


.4 • ' ,, L. ^ y-<k^ 







COUNTER CURRENTS 35 

ming for exams./’ and so would she. He 
was coming, and he must find her still com- 
petent to stand beside him. All her doubt 
and fear had vanished. His letters had been 
faithful, and tender, and true. He seemed 
as eager to return as she was to have him 
come. How surprised he would be when he 
found that she had been studying with him 
through the whole year ! She must be ready 
to pass the examinations that Harvey would 
conduct. And he would explain those hard 
constructions in Greek, and straighten out 
the snarl she had found in Horace, and work 
out the theorem that she could not under- 
stand in Book Sixth.” All pleasure, all 
help, all peace, all joy were to come “ when 
Harve comes.” And so the time rolled 
around. 

The morning of the day on which he was 
to arrive. Ward Collins knocked at Mr. 
Dean’s door. 

Good -morning, Maggie,” he said to the 
girl, who answered his summons. Harve 
St. Clair is to get home to-night — as I sup- 


36 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

pose you know — this with a merry smile. 

And a lot of us young folks are going to 
drive down to Cedar Landing to meet him. 
Would you like to go along? ” 

“ Indeed I should ! ” she exclaimed 
eagerly. “ It is going to be a lovely night 
for a ride, and it will be such a nice sur- 
prise for Harve to find us all waiting for 
him. Who was so wise as to plan the 
trip? 

“ Your humble servant,” replied Ward 
gayly, as he bowed low before her. Then he 
added : 

We will call for you about sunset. The 
boat does not arrive till ten o’clock, so we 
shall have plenty of time to drive down.” 

After a little more conversation he left, 
and Maggie went singing to her work. Sun- 
down brought a merry party of six young 
people to Mr. Dean’s gate. 

We didn’t bring any partner for you, 
Maggie,” laughed Ward as he helped her in- 
to the wagon. We thought we’d try to find 
one for you somewhere down the road.” 


COUNTER CURRENTS 37 

Whereat all the gay crowd laughed heart- 
ily, and Maggie answered : 

“ How thoughtful you are. I’m sure I 
wish you success,” 

Then they drove away down the river 
road. 

Meanwhile the great packet was gliding 
swiftly down the beautiful Ohio, and on her 
forward deck Harvey St. Clair paced back- 
ward and forward in his impatience. The 
rays of the full moon lit up the hills and 
woods on either shore, and turned the river 
to a silver flood. The waves broke spar- 
kles of light before the bow of the boat, and 
dashed in silver foam behind the wheels. The 
tall cliffs shone white in the clear light, and 
the rocky door of McHarry’s tomb,” far 
above trees and river, showed plainly to the 
observers on the guards of the boat so many 
feet below it. The woods sent back the echo 
of the steam-pipe’s whistle. The willows 
along the shore bent over to admire them- 
selves in the clear waters, and wild-grape 
vines trailed their streamers to meet the 


38 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

waves. Overhead, the stars looked down up- 
on the myriad moving lights in the river be- 
low. Down on the boiler-deck the negro crew 
were enjoying themselves with dance and 
song. Their rich, melodious voices, with ac- 
companiment of banjo and clog-dance, rang 
out upon the still air, in perfect accord with 
the beauty of time and place, and found an 
appreciative audience in the crowd of pas- 
sengers on the decks above them. The up- 
ward-bound packet flew past them with 
whistle and cheers, its lights disappeared 
around the bend, and again the Grey Eagle 
was alone. 

All these things the young man noted 
with appreciative eyes. 

How I wish Maggie were here to enjoy 
this perfect night and this delightful ride. 
Poor girl ! Her chances for pleasure and for 
seeing the world are small. How I wish she 

could go back to W with me. She is so 

fond of study and books that college life 
would be paradise to her. My! she would 
make some of us fellows dig harder than 


COUNTER CURRENTS 39 

Queen Bess did. Wouldn’t those two girls 
appreciate one another, though? I must tell 
Maggie about Bess, and she shall help me 
answer the Queen’s letters when they come. 
Ah! Miss Queenie, you’ll not catch your 
humble servant in a corner so easily when 
he has Maggie Dean’s quick brains to help 
him find suitable answers to your witty sal- 
lies. 

Walter and Bess must be at home by 
this time,” pulling out his watch. Would 
n’t I have liked to accept their invitation to 
go home with them for a week or so? May- 
be I’ll find time to run up there for a few 
days during the summer. If it had not 
been for seeing Maggie, I’d have gone to- 
day ; but I could not bear to disappoint her. 
I wonder what she has been doing since I 
have been away. Come to think about it, 
she has hardly said a word about herself in 
all her letters. It is strange I did not think 
of it before; but her letters were so enter- 
taining that I really did not notice the omis- 
sion. I must tell her how Walter laughed 


40 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT VP 

over her description of their trip to Buck 
Creek schoolhouse for the Teachers’ Insti- 
tute, and of the nice things Queen Bess said 
of her ability as a letter-writer. I wonder 
whether she has changed any, and whether I 
shall find her the same dear, sweet girl that 
I used to think her. What should I do all 
summer if she were not in Sharon? I ex- 
pect the town will seem dreadfully dull 
after all the fun we had at W . 

Won’t Maggie be proud of the gold 
medal that I won in the oratorical contest? 
I’m glad I didn’t tell her I was going to try 
for it, as it will be such a nice surprise for 
her. 

She’ll be prouder than Queen Bess was, 
I know, though she can never say prettier 
things about it than My Lady did that even- 
ing, as I walked home with her after the ex- 
ercises were over. 

Heigh-ho! Will this old boat never 
reach Cedar Landing? I did not think the 
distance was so long.” 

Down at Cedar Landing the young people 


COUNTER CURRENTS 


41 


from Sharon paced up and down the river- 
bank, passing their time with laughter, jest, 
and song, while waiting for the coming of 
their long-absent comrade. 

‘‘Look! cried Ward at length. “ Yonder 
comes the up-boat. She’ll pass the Eagle 
somewhere about Bridgeport. We shall 
not have long to wait now.” 

They watched the great boat glide smooth- 
ly past, w^atched the sparkle of the waves 
that foamed and dashed high upon the 
shore, even after the boat was out of sight 
around the bend, listened to the puff of her 
chimneys and the hiss of her steam-pipes, 
until they died away in the distance. Then, 
after a short silence, far away they heard 
her whistle, and the answering whistle of 
the Grey Eagle as they passed one another, 
and almost simultaneously they cried : 

“ Here she comes ! ” 

It was not long till the lights of the 
Eagle appeared around the bend, and in a 
few minutes she rounded into the shore. The 
gang-planks swung out, and Harvey sprang 


42 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

among them, and was eagerly greeted by the 
party that had waited so patiently for his 
coming. There was much laughter and 
handshaking. Everybody talked at once, 
and all enjoyed his surprise at the unex- 
pected meeting. 

When they turned to walk up the bank, 
Harvey took his place at Maggie^s side. 

Doesn’t this seem like old times? ” he 
murmured, as he drew her hand through his 
arm. It was so good of you to come. You 
don’t know how glad I am to see you again.” 

Yes, I do know,” she answered, a little 
shyly. I know by my own gladness.” 

They had time for very few other words, 
for everyone claimed Harvey’s attention. 
The ride home was a merry one ; and if Har- 
vey had found the first part of his journey 
uncommonly long, he found the last four 
miles uncommonly short to make up for it. 

As the summer days flew by, Harvey and 
Maggie studied each other most earnestly. 
There was a difference which both felt, but 
of which neither spoke, and which they both 


COUNTER CURRENTS 


43 


tried to persuade themselves was only a de- 
lusion. Harvey had been astounded by 
Maggie^s progress in her studies, and by the 
ability which she had shown in accomplish- 
ing so much without help. 

Maggie,’^ he sighed, how I wish you 

could go to W , too ! You would so much 

enjoy the study, the companionship of so 
many earnest students, the atmosphere of 
culture and refinement. I cannot explain it 
to you, but one feels the difference in the air 
the moment he steps within the college walls. 
Someway, everybody and everything looks 
different, and one feels an inspiration to 
pitch into his studies and dig for gold which 
he knows is there. I cannot put the feeling 
into words, but I fancy you know what I 
mean.^’ 

Yes,’’ she answered, and I imagine the 
professors wear halos of Greek and Latin, 
and everything moves by geometrical pro- 
gression.” 

Now you are making fun of me,” he 
laughed. But you would enjoy it. How 


44 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

I wish you and Bess Brooks could meet 
one another. You would be sworn friends, 
I am sure, for you both adore brains. And 
Bess is jolly, too. All the fellows are half- 
wild over her. We call her Queen Bess, and 
she does queen it royally over our class. It 
keeps us fellows digging to get any of the 
honors, and the other girls of the class don’t 
stand any show at all with her. She and I 
are real good friends, for her brother, Wal- 
ter, is my room-mate, you know. She has 
promised to correspond with me this sum- 
mer, and I’m relying on your quick wits to 
help me answer some of her sharp sallies. 
You’ll do it, won’t you? ” 

Oh, yes,” she answered coldly ; and 
Harvey was stupid enough to wonder at her 
lack of enthusiasm over what was such an 
entertaining subject of conversation to him- 
self. Then Maggie turned the subject by 
asking : 

Do you think Sharon has changed any 
since you went away? ” 

“No; I suppose it has not,” he answered 


COUNTER CURRENTS 


45 


slowly. And yet it does seem different. It 
may be that the change is all in me, and 
that it is only because I see things in a new 
light. I can’t help wondering how people 
can be content to stay here their whole lives, 
seeing nothing, learning nothing, rusting 
out instead of wearing out. There is so much 
to know, the world is so full of good, and 
pleasant, and desirable things, that a fellow 
feels as if life were not half long enough to 
grasp all he could hold. And when one takes 
into account that cultivation increases the 
grasping power, the prospect becomes 
boundless.” 

The young Sophomore at that moment 
felt capable of seizing a large share of the 
world’s honors and rewards, and Maggie’s 
quick eyes read his thoughts a great deal 
more readily than she could her Greek. The 
process of growing away from her had be- 
gun. 

What will you do when your course is 
finished? Will you come back to Sharon? ” 
she asked sadly. 


46 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

I have not made up my mind yet. There 
are still three years ahead. But ITl never 
come back to Sharon to live. I’d die if I 
had to grind along for a bare living, as most 
of the men here have to do. Walter and I 
talk of studying law. We make some bril- 
liant plans sometimes when we stop study- 
ing long enough to indulge in day-dreams. 
Bess laughs at us, and declares our heads 
lack a balance-wheel ; but she fails to tell us 
how to obtain one.” 

A jealous pang went through Maggie’s 
heart. Why could he not talk five minutes 
without referring to Bess Brooks? It quite 
spoiled every conversation they held to- 
gether. The bond of intense sympathy be- 
tween them was gone, and she was sensible 
enough to acknowledge it to herself. Their 
interests, their aims, their lives, had drifted 
apart. They were no longer connected in 
every event that came along. He was not 
interested in Sharon and its doings, and she 
cared nothing for his college and classmates. 
He seemed to almost adore Queen Bess, 


COUNTER CURRENTS 47 

and she hated her very name in conse- 
quence. 

Harvey was not inclined to put on airs, 
or treat his old home and friends with dis- 
dain ; but there was a constant lack that met 
him at every turn, and a subtle magnetism 
revealed it to his companions as well 
as himself. He wondered over it, and 
especially over the change in his feelings 
toward Maggie Dean. He had almost 
worshiped ’’ the girl all his life, and ab- 
sence had not decreased his affection and 
admiration. Every girl whom he had met 
had been compared with her, and the com- 
parison had invariably resulted in Maggie’s 
favor. It was because Bess Brooks had ap- 
proached the nearest to his ideal that he 
had been attracted to the girl. He had been 
eager to get home that he might have the 
bliss of three months of the old companion- 
ship. Now that he had come, under the new 
light his eyes had received the old glamour 
had vanished. He could see deficiencies of 
which he had never dreamed. The air of 


48 THE OIRL WHO KEPT UP 

culture and refinement that seemed to be 
Bess Brooks’s vital breath was absent in 
Maggie. Her dress, her manners, her ex- 
pressions seemed coarse in comparison with 
dainty Queen Bess. She was awkward and 
ill at ease. He did not dream how much of 
this change was due to his uncomfortable 
infiuence, but he perceived it, and she felt 
the perception. In the old days, conversa- 
tion had never languished between them. 
Now, there were frequent intervals of un- 
comfortable silence. He had taken Bess’s 
first letter to her, sure of her appreciation ; 
but she had seemed so coldly indifferent to 
it that he did not attempt it again. He felt 
the distance widening between them, and 
saw the shadow growing in Maggie’s eyes, 
and he made frequent efforts to overcome 
the change. He tried to persuade himself 
that he cared as much for her as ever, that 
she was still the embodiment of all that was 
intellectual and good and true, that all the 
world was as nothing to him when compared 
with the joy of her companionship; but he 


COUNTER CURRENTS 


49 


could not deceive himself. He was only a 
Sophomore, and looked through the eyes 
and weighed with the judgment of a Sopho- 
more. What difference future years might 
make in his opinions, tastes, and desires was 
not then apparent 

He was sensible of Maggie^s unchanged 
sterling worth and brainy common-sense; 
but all the time his mind^s eye dwelt on the 
pretty face and daintily robed form of 
Queen Bess. He seemed to hear the girPs 
teasing tones and tinkling laugh ; or saw her 
when, with queenly dignity, she bowed on 
the stage to her admiring audience as she 
carried off the laurels of her class. 

The days began to drag, and Harvey 
looked forward eagerly to the first of Sep- 
tember, which would call him back to his 
beloved college home. 

The old affection surged up in his heart 
when he went for the second time to bid 
Maggie good-by. 

When my course is done, I shall come 
to you for the reward, sweetheart,” he mur- 


50 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

mured ; and honestly believed that his words 
were true. 

But Maggie was not deceived. 

Good-by, dear,’’ she murmured to her- 
self, as she watched him go down the lane. 

It is the last time. It is all over. He can 
never come back to me.” And the blinding 
tears hid him from her sight. 


CHAPTER IV 


MOUNTAINS^ OR MOLEHILLS? 

Was your summer quite as satisfactory 
as you expected it to be? ’’ The questioner 
was Walter Brooks, and the person ad- 
dressed was Harvey St. Clair. The latter 
hesitated over his answer. He had studied 
a great deal over this question since he had 
left Sharon. Had his summer been a suc- 
cess? Had his hopes been realized? Was 
he more or less happy in consequence of his 
visit? His abstraction had been so marked 
that at length his room-mate took this 
method of seeking to find out where the 
trouble lay. 

Brooks waited patiently while St. Clair 
turned the question over and over in his 
mind. At length, in answer to his query, 
came this one from his friend : 

Walt, do you consider education an un- 
qualified blessing? 


51 


52 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

Walter laughed. 

Is there anything unqualified in the 
world? he returned. 

Harvey ignored the question. 

Do you think that what a fellow gains 
makes up for all he loses? ” 

That depends on what is gained and 
what lost.” 

It seems to me that you are very chary 
with your answers,” Harvey said, with some 
heat. 

“ Not any less liberal than you are with 
your side of the question. Tell me where 
your trouble lies, and perhaps I can en- 
lighten you from the aggregate of my wis- 
dom.” 

Harvey stuck his hands into his pockets, 
knit his brows, and paced up and down the 
room. Walter tipped back his chair, placed 
his feet upon the table, clasped his hands 
behind his head, and waited in provoking 
coolness for his friend’s uneasiness to shape 
itself into words. 

Harvey came and dropped down into a 


MOUl^TAINS, OR MOLEHILLS? 53 

chair, rested his elbows upon the table, and 
his chin in his hands. 

When a fellow studies and gets ahead of 
his friends and neighbors so that they are 
no longer congenial companions, who is the 
more to blame — the fellow for going ahead, 
or the people for dragging behind? ” 

Walter laughed heartily. 

Well, you are in a pickle!’’ he exclaimed. 
Then he added more seriously : 

That is a question that has to be con- 
sidered from the standpoint of each indi- 
vidual. Characters and conditions vary so 
much that what hits the center with one, 
misses the mark entirely with another. Now, 
if you will be so good as to drop abstracts, 
and narrow the question down to your par- 
ticular case, perhaps I can help you. Do 
you mean to remark that you have advanced 
so much that you found your Miss Dean 
uncongenial? ” 

Harvey nodded gloomily. 

That is about the state of the case ; but 


64 TEE GIRL WHO eJ^UP 

I do not understand it. Maggie has fully 
kept pace with me in intellectual acquire- 
ments. She is certainly ahead of me in 
brains, for she accomplished alone what I 
had several professors and a great library 
to assist me in getting. Comparing her 
with what she was when I first left home, 
I can see that in many points she has gained. 
And yet — there is a lack. Try as I would, 
I could not overlook it. Has she retro- 
graded, or has my standard fallen so far 
behind that polish counts for more than 
true worth and clear common-sense? On 
which side is the lack? Who has been left 
behind? 

Walter did not laugh now. The question 
was too hard, and his friend’s perplexity too 
real. 

True worth, brains, and common-sense 
are never to be underestimated; yet polish 
is what brings out the beauty of the dia- 
mond and fixes its valuation with the public. 
Polish can be acquired, but truth and com- 
mon-sense are the gifts of Heaven. If I were 


M0VNTAIN8, OR MOLEEILLSt 55 

to choose between them, I would take God^s 
gifts rather than man^s.” 

Then I am the one at fault,’’ said 
Harvey. 

Yes, for you are inclined to demand too 
much. Whenever you begin to set an undue 
valuation on polish, your own make-up is 
getting out of balance.” 

Walter’s sympathies were very much in 
favor of the ambitious girl in that far-away 
backwoods home. From what his friend had 
told him, he had formed a high estimate of 
her. More than that; he fully realized 
what had worked the disastrous change in 
Harvey. 

Don’t ask for perfection, old fellow. 
Stick to worth and brains, even if you have 
to let polish go.” 

But some people have all three. Take 
your sister, for instance.” 

There it was at last. Just what Walter 
had feared. He made a gesture of extreme 
impatience. 

‘‘ Ah ! You have named one unqualified 


56 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

thing. Queen Bess is an unqualified flirt. 
Be careful, poor moth, or you will get your 
wings singed.” 

“ That is a very unbrotherly remark,” 
said Harvey tartly. 

It may sound unbrotherly, but it is not 
really so; and there is no doubt about its 
being friendly,” returned Walter promptly. 

I love my sister devotedly. I am proud of 
her beauty and her intellectual ability; 
but I recognize this disastrous flaw in her 
character, and should be very unkind both 
to her and to you if I did not warn you of 
it. If you would be both wise and happy, 
don’t waste any more thoughts on her, but 
be true to your ^ pearl.’ If you don’t, some 
day you will rue it. More than that; you 
will break that girl’s true heart. Are you so 
stupid as not to see that it is love for you 
that spurs her forward to try to keep pace 
with you in your studies? Do you not see 
that ambition would flag, and pride would 
fall short, and love of knowledge would fail 
if there were not the higher power behind 


M0VNTAIN8, OR MOLEHILLS? 57 

them? Harve, you are the one left behind. 
I declare! I am ashamed of you. I wish 
I knew that girl.’^ Walter was getting ex- 
cited. All his sense of chivalry was aroused, 
and he found himself in the singular posi- 
tion of defending Maggie^s cause against the 
very one who should have been its most de- 
voted champion. 

His words had their proper effect. Har- 
vey’s vision was cleared, so that he beheld 
things in their true light. He called himself 
many ridiculous names, and berated his own 
stupidity so vigorously that Walter was 
highly amused. He sat down at once, and 
wrote Maggie such a letter as caused her 
heart to glow and her eyes to shine for 
many days after its reception. 

Walter’s friendly offices did not stop with 
his talk with Harvey. He went to his sister, 
and gave her a long, serious talk. He spared 
no words in showing her her fault, and 
warning her against the consequences of in- 
dulging in it. He made her look at the ques- 
tion from Maggie’s point of view, and 


58 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

showed her the effect her diversion ’’ 
would have upon an innocent girPs life. 

Queen Bess pouted. She was not ready 
to lose so handsome and talented a courtier 
as St. Clair. It gave such a zest to her 
studies to hold him as her chief rival. He 
was so bright and entertaining that she did 
not want to give up his society. So she 
made excuses to her brother. 

“ You are making a mountain out of a 
molehill/’ she said. If Harvey St. Clair 
has no more stamina than you give him 
credit for, he is not worth w(^^ing over. A 
little flirtation is not going to hurt him. I’ll 
just lance his wisdom teeth for him, and 
he’ll go back to that little country girl and 
swear that he never dreamed for a minute 
of ever caring for anyone but her, and she’ll 
believe him and marry him, and they’ll ‘ live 
happily ever after.’ ” 

She ended with a merry laugh, but it had 
no effect upon her brother. 

I am ashamed of you for being so small- 
minded as to deal in ^ molehills.’ For my 


MOUNTAINS, OR MOLEHILLS? 59 

part, I have no patience for anything so 
small. You have made an apt simile. A 
flirt is like a mole — a little, despised, blind 
creature, digging an underground pitfall for 
unwary feet. I wish you joy of your occu- 
pation.’’ 

He turned indignantly away and left her. 

Queen Bess shed a few angry tears, made 
a few weak resolutions to do better, and 
straightway forgot all about them. When 
next she met St. Clair it was with a brilliant 
smile and an outstretched hand that over- 
came at once all his good resolutions; and 
poor Maggie’s cause was again in the dust 
of defeat. Harvey was more than ever her 
devoted slave, and Maggie’s tender reply to 
his long letter was tossed impatiently aside 
and allowed to remain unanswered in his 
desk. As days went on his infatuation for 
the girl increased. He could hardly study 
for thinking of her; so that she no longer 
found him a brilliant rival. His devotion 
became so marked that it began to be an- 
noying, and at length she determined to put 


60 THE OIRL WHO KEPT UP 

a stop to it. She began to treat him more 
coolly. She ceased to challenge him in their 
studies. His brightest remarks were al- 
lowed to pass unnoticed. Last and worst of 
all, another student was made the recipient 
of her sweetest smiles and most gracious 
favors. When it appeared that the said stu- 
dent was not only smart and good-looking, 
but wealthy as well, Harvey’s chances with 
the fickle beauty dwindled into insignifi- 
cance. 

Of course he was duly miserable, and 
frantic, and foolish. Every young man has 
the experience to go through at some period 
of his life. He thinks himself near to die 
with heart-failure; but he finds in after 
years that it was only an attack of love- 
varioloid, which did not even leave scars. 

Walter watched his distress with a sort 
of grim satisfaction. 

Serves him right,” he said half-savagely 
to himself. He would not heed my warn- 
ing, and now he must abide the conse- 
quences. I hope Bess did ^ lance his wisdom 


MOUNTAINS, OR MOLEHILLS? 61 

teeth/ and that this will be his last experi- 
ence of this sort. Maybe now he will re- 
member the little girl at Sharon ; though he 
doesn’t deserve her. I wonder what sort of 
plea he will make to patch up his case. He’d 
better plead guilty and throw himself on 
her mercy. That is the only manly way — 
and yet, in cases like this, manly and man- 
like do not always mean the same thing.” 

The two young men were sitting in their 
room one evening. Walter was absorbed in 
Cicero, and Harvey was supposed to be 
studying analytics. A long-drawn sigh re- 
vealed that his thoughts were far from 
mathematics, and drew Walter’s attention 
to him. The latter leaned back in his chair, 
and studied his room-mate intently for a 
few minutes. 

Haggard face ; restless, nervous air, at- 
tended with fits of abstraction; loss of ap- 
petite and sleep; inability to fix the mind 
intently on other objects; general depres- 
sion and symptoms of monomania. A pretty 
bad case, my boy.” 


62 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

What do you mean?’^ asked Harvey, 
looking up with a half-angry air. 

Just what I say,’’ returned his com- 
panion, still studying him attentively. 

Your symptoms are those of a well-devel- 
oped case of heart-disease. I think, how- 
ever, that you have reached the crisis, and 
will soon be convalescent. Don’t think your 
luck uncommonly hard, old fellow. You are 
only taking part of the regular course. It 
isn’t laid down in the curriculum, but it is 
one of the electives that usually comes in 
the Sophomore year. I took it the year be- 
fore you came, when I was only a Freshie, 
SO I know how it goes. It’s like whooping- 
cough or measles, decidedly unpleasant, but 
rarely ever fatal.” 

Harvey was very angry now. He slammed 
his book shut, pushed back his chair so en- 
ergetically that it fell over, thrust his hands 
into his pockets and began pacing the room. 

Walter leaned back in his chair, and con- 
tinued to study him with that same quizzi- 
cal interest. ^ 



Shall I tell you what 1 did when I was in your hx?” — Page 63. 




. K 


MOUNTAINS, OR MOLEHILLS? 63 

Shall I tell you what I did when I was 
in your fix? I said to myself, ^ See here, 
Walter Brooks. It is time to call a halt on 
this nonsense. There is no sense in your 
going around with this air of gloomy 
grandeur, thereby publicly announcing your 
defeat. Hold up your head like a soldier. 
Go to work and make such a man of your- 
self as to make that false girl wish to the 
eind of her days that she had treated you 
otherwise. Turn failure into success, and 
defeat into victory. Make of it at least a 
Cadmean victory.’ And so I would advise 
you. A girl who will treat a fellow as Bess 
has treated you is not a girl to sigh or die 
for. Bather count yourself lucky to have 
gotten off so easily. Now go to work and 
make her both sorry and ashamed of her- 
self.” 

I don’t believe you ever were really in 
love with a girl,” returned Harvey crossly. 

No. I don’t think so myself. Neither 
are you truly in love with Bess. Flirtation 
does not win love; it only gains admiration. 


64 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

Where the elements for real respect are 
lacking, love has no deep root, and is hardly 
worthy of the name. No, no, old fellow. You 
are not half as badly off as you think you 
are. To-day it is tragedy, to-morrow it will 
be comedy, next year it will be forgotten. 

Seriously, Harvey, I am sorry for you, 
and doubly sorry because my sister had been 
the cause of this trouble. I saw it coming, 
and did all I could to prevent it; but it 
seems that my efforts were in vain. Will 
you not believe that I truly regret it? 

Harvey had dropped down into a chair 
by the table. 

“ I do believe you, Walter. You did try — 
weeks ago — to warn me ; but I could not be- 
lieve then that you were right. Perhaps some* 
day I shall see that your other prophecies 
are true — but not now.’’ 

He dropped his head upon his arms with 
a sigh, and Walter wisely left him to his 
own reflections. 

His mind went back over every incident 
of the time that had passed since he flrst left 


MOUNTAINS, OR MOLEHILLS? 65 

Sharon. All his acquaintance with Queen 
Bess was carefully recalled, and he saw with 
deep humiliation that she had been playing 
with him all the time. He realized how 
easily he had been duped, and the mercury 
of his self-conceit dropped a great many de- 
grees as he felt that others must have seen 
aud laughed at his verdancy. The memory 
of Walter’s warning reminded him also of 
the advice given him at the same time, which 
had resulted in the contrite letter he had 
written to Maggie Dean. With a pang he 
remembered that her letter had lain unan- 
swered and uncared for ; then he forgot him- 
self in wondering what she had thought and 
done in the long weeks that had passed since 
her letter was written. 

Poor little girl,” he sighed. I wish I 
could care as much for you as I do for 
Queen Bess; but that is impossible.” 


CHAPTER V 


LIFE QUESTIONS 

Life at Sharon moved very slowly for 
Maggie after Harvey had gone back to col- 
lege. Love had been chilled by indifference, 
and hope had given place to despair. She 
had worked so hard and against such odds 
to keep up with him in his studies, that he 
might find her companionship as congenial 
on his return as it had been before he left. 
None except those who have gone through a 
similar experience can tell how hard a task 
she had set for herself, nor how great was 
her victory. She had denied herself many 
things that she might purchase the needed 
books, and had given up many little pleas- 
ures and recreations for the sake of study. 
The harder the task, the greater had been 
her joy; for was she not striving for Har- 
vey’s sake? Desire for knowledge lured her, 
ambition spurred her on, pride forbade fail- 
66 


LIFE QUESTIONS 67 

ure, but love smoothed the rugged way and 
glorified success. Did a problem prove in- 
tricate, she wondered whether Harvey had 
found it so. Did a passage in Latin puzzle 
her, immediately she imagined him digging 
at it, and felt a new zest in renewing her 
endeavors. His image was constantly be- 
fore her. His eyes looked from every page 
of her books. Often, instead of studying, 
she would lean back in her chair, forgetful 
of the present, dreaming of the scenes and 
conversations that would take place when 
Harve comes home.” 

Now he had come — and gone. Knowledge 
lured in vain, ambition and pride were pow- 
erless; for love lay wounded in the dust. 
She could no longer study. The sight of her 
books sent a chill to her heart. There was 
no use in striving when success was only 
failure, and victory but defeat. Her task 
had been accomplished, but the prize had 
not been won. She had gained the desired 
knowledge — but Harvey did not care. He 
had been astonished by her ability, and 


68 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

praised her ambition, but that was all. His 
mind had approved, but his heart had been 
untouched. He had yawned over her most 
earnest efforts, and expended 'all his enthu- 
siasm over one of Bess Brooks’s nonsensical 
letters. She could not shut her eyes to the 
fact that he had left her behind. 

She studied much over the problem as to 
wherein she had failed. 

Brains are not everything,” she said to 
herself sadly. Beauty and graceful man- 
ners; pretty clothes, quick wit, social ac- 
complishments, wealth — how much it takes 
to overbalance all these. But oh, Harvey, 
Harvey, does my love count for nothing? 
Have you gone from me forever? Oh, why 
must it be so? If I could have gone too, or 
if you could have stayed here, how happy 
we might have been ! 

Is knowledge Tvorth more than love? 
Will increase of wisdom bring increased 
happiness? Will the great world satisfy, 
when content is lost? Oh, Harvey, dear, 
have you gained or lost? ” 


LIFE QUESTIONS 69 

With such words as these she made her 
moan, and alone in the woods or under the 
orcharcl trees she fought her battle with 
despair. 

After a time came Harvey^s letter, bringing 
joy and comfort to her heart. He had not 
forgotten. He did care, after all. It was only 
because he was studying so hard, that he 
wrote so seldom, she told herself. Then 
she sat down and wrote all her heart into 
the long letter that she sent in answer. 

Weeks passed, and no reply came. Joy 
fled, hope died, despair reigned undisputed. 

Into the midst of it all came another 
trouble that overshadowed the first so deep- 
ly that for the time it was forgotten. Mr. 
Dean was taken suddenly ill, and after a 
short sickness, died. The blow was crush- 
ing to Maggie. The only one in the world 
who had loved her was gone. There was no 
one to whom she could turn in her bitter 
grief. Her stepmother was loud in the ex- 
pression of her own sorrow, but she 
mourned the loss for herself and her own 


70 THE GIRL WHO KEPT VP 

children, and expended no tenderness upon 
her stepdaughter. 

Among those who came and went during 
this period of trouble, Mrs. Morris, the min- 
ister’s wife, was the only one who appreci- 
ated Maggie’s extreme desolation. She took 
the poor girl into her arms and soothed and 
comforted her, as if she were Maggie’s own 
mother; and the girl’s heart turned eagerly 
to the unexpected tenderness. It was her 
one support, her one ray of light in the 
darkness that overwhelmed her. 

One night, after the younger children had 
been put to bed, Mrs. Dean said to Maggie : 

Well, Maggie, it’s time we was a-havin’ 
a talk over things, to find out what we’re 
a-goin’ to do for ourselves. Now that your 
pa’s dead, we’ll hev to look out for our own 
livin’, an’ I ’low it hain’t goin’ to be no very 
easy matter. Have you been a-thinkin’ any, 
these days? ” 

No,” Maggie answered dully. She had 
been too stupefied even to remember that 
such a thing as a living ” had to be con- 


LIFE QUESTIONS 


71 


sidered. Self had been utterly forgotten. 
Her poor brain had only room for two 
thoughts : 

Father is gone. Harve is gone.” 

These words kept repeating themselves 
in her ears, and crowded all others 
away. 

Her stepmother made a gesture of im- 
patience. 

IFs a good thing you have somebody to 
do your thinkin’ for you, or you’d be in a 
pretty fix now. I’ll tell you what I’ve de- 
cided to do, and then you kin make up your 
mind whether you’ll stay with me, or 
whether you’ll pull off for yourself. 

I’ll rent out all the farm to Tom Nelson, 
except what little we’ll want for garden 
truck. The orchard is in good fix, an’ there’s 
’most every kind of small fruit; so I’ll just 
stay here and put up fruit for sale. Mis’ 
Morris says there’s a call for ’most ev’ry 
kind of home-made preserves and jellies in 
the city, an’, thank Fortune, there hain’t no 
one that can make ’em any better than me. 


72 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

So I^ve made up my mind to go into it 
wholesale. 

Now, if you want, you kin stay with 
me. I wouldn’t for one minute think of 
turnin’ you out o’ your home; an’ I ’low I’d 
miss you an awful sight ef you went away. 
You’re a master hand at picklin’ an’ pre- 
servin’ for so young a girl, an’ you’d be a 
mighty sight o’ help. 

But your pa ’lowed, before he died, that 
you wouldn’t be satisfied here. He said he’d 
always reckoned that some day you’d be a 
teacher, and he didn’t believe you’d be 
happy ef you ever had to give up studyin’. 
So he said : ^ There’s three hundred dollars 
loaned out to Squire Free. If Maggie wants 
to go to school, that money is her’n. If she 
don’t want to go, she can save it. It ’ll come 
handy when she and Harve goes to set up 
housekeepin’.’ 

So now you kin study it over, and make 
up your mind what you’re a-goin’ to do. 
There hain’t no rush about it. Of course 
this is your home, an’ you’ve a right to stay 


LIFE QUESTIONS 73 

here as long as you choose, an’ I ’low I’d 
rather see you stay than go. But I want 
you to satisfy yourself, an’ do what will 
make you happiest. Ef you want to go to 
school, why three hundred dollars ought to 
buy you an awful sight of education.” 

Maggie smiled, a little, dull smile that 
died almost as soon as it was born. She 
and Harvey had studied too many cata- 
logues, and counted up tuition and board 
rates too many times, for her to set a very 
large estimate on the purchasing power of 
three hundred dollars. 

I’ll think about it to-morrow,” she said 
to her stepmother. I’m too tired to-night, 
and my head aches.” Then she went away 
to bed and wept herself to sleep. 

The next day she went to her friend Mrs. 
Morris, and stated the case. 

If ik were earlier in the season, I might 
teach,” she said. “ But here it is nearly 
Christmas, and the schools are half out. I 
just cannot stay there and make preserves 
and pickles. I hate it. I can hardly bear 


74 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

to stay there since father is gone. Oh, I 
miss him so! How can I bear it? ” 

Gently her friend soothed and comforted 
her. When her grief had spent itself, Mrs. 
Morris said : 

I will think it over for you, dear, and 
Mr. Morris will help me. Surely we can 
find some place, some way, open for you.’’ 

Maggie was now a daily visitor at the 
parsonage. Her one happiness was in 
being with these good friends, and her great-, 
est joy was to do something to help Mrs. 
Morris, and thus find expression for her 
gratitude. 

One day when she entered the house Mrs. 
Morris said: 

“ I am glad you have come. I have some 
news for you. Sit down, while I tell you of 
a letter I have just received from my sister 
in Cincinnati. 

“ My sister, Mrs. Wallace, is the wife of a 
lawyer. They are wealthy, live in an ele- 
gant home, and keep quite a good deal of 
help about their house. I thought perhaps 


LIFE QUESTIONS 


75 


I could find something for you to do, and a 
chance for you to advance your education 
at the same time; so I wrote to her about 
you, and asked her whether she could help 
you in any way. She appears to have be- 
come much interested in you, and has writ- 
ten to say that she needs a girl to wait on 
the table and to assist the chambermaid. 
You can go and try the place, and if you 
and she please each other, she will give you 
your board and clothes and let you have a 
chance to go to school, in return for your 
help. I think that is a fair offer, and I be- 
lieve it is quite the best thing you can do. 
You would need only a small portion of 
your three hundred dollars at present — only 
enough to provide you with a few articles 
of clothing to begin with, and sufficient to 
pay your passage to Cincinnati. You 
would have the advantage of splendid 
schools, and more than that, you would ac- 
quire a culture that is not obtainable from 
books. One cannot live in an atmosphere 
of refinement and not absorb some of it. 


76 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

You would be associated with people of 
culture and intelligence; you would have 
opportunities for observing and learning 
the requirements of good society ; you could 
gain much that would be of help to you in 
the world. I know that my sister would not 
treat you as a menial. She is kind and con- 
siderate with all, and I believe she would 
make you happy in her home. 

Now, dear, think about it carefully, and 
talk it over with your stepmother. When 
you have made up your mind let me know, 
and I will write to sister for you.^’ 

Maggie went home with her heart in a 
tumult of joy. The prospect of a chance to 
make an honest living was in itself enough 
to make her happy ; but above that was the 
opportunity to obtain the best of school 
privileges, and beyond even that, the pleas- 
ure of being with refined and cultured 
people. 

It is what I lacked,’’ she told herself joy- 
ously. It is what Harve missed when he 
came home. It is what made the difference 


LIFE QUESTIONS 77 

between Bess Brooks and me — and that is 
what I want. Oh, how glad I am! Har- 
vey, dear, perhaps I shall keep up after all.’^ 

Mrs. Dean was shrewd enough to see the- 
benefits of the proposed plan, and counseled 
Maggie accordingly; but really no advice 
was needed, for the girl’s heart was already 
set on the proposed change. 

So the letter was written and dispatched, 
the answer came, and Maggie made ready 
to leave the home of her childhood. 

It hurt more than she had anticipated. 
She felt as if she were cutting adrift on an 
unknown sea, and shrank back to the quiet 
of the well-known harbor. One thought — 
one ambition — spurred her forward. She 
would yet become all that Harvey could 
desire her to be. She would go to the city, 
and study — oh, how she would study! — to 
make up for the time she had lost. Then, 
she would watch and learn all the things 
which she realized he had desired and missed 
in her. She would find out what was green, 
and awkward, and improper, and strive to 


78 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

overcome it. She would make the most of 
the opportunity opened before her, and per- 
haps some day still greater ones would ap- 
pear. And so, with sorrow, and fear, and 
hope, and eager ambition, she said farewell 
forever to the old life and began on the new. 

The day after Maggie left Sharon, Har- 
vey’s mother wrote him a letter. All the 
news of the neighborhood was written down 
for his benefit, and of course Mr. Dean’s 
death was a prominent item. Mrs. Dean’s 
plans for the future were discussed, and 
then it ended up : 

And Maggie has gone to the city to work 
out. Mrs. Morris got her a place and she 
left home yesterday. It’s a kind of a come- 
down for Maggie, for she always held her 
head dreadful high; but trouble usually 
takes things down for everybody.” 

When Harvey received that letter, he 
could get no farther than that direful news. 
He could hardly believe it. It grieved, and 
angered, and almost insulted, him. Maggie 
— his Maggie,” he had almost said — had 


LIFE QUESTIONS 


79 


gone to work in somebody’s kitchen ! How 
degrading! How shocking! He felt a 
sense of personal wrong. How could she 
do it? Where was all her ambition? What 
had become of her pride? Surely there was 
a coarse vein in the girl’s character that he 
had overlooked, or she would never descend 
to such a place. Perhaps it was necessity 
that drove her to it, but he could hardly 
think so. Surely she might have found 
some more elevated position than that! 

Since Bess Brooks had thrown him over 
his thoughts had turned more and more to 
Maggie. He had almost come to the con- 
clusion that he would try to re-establish 
their friendship on the old basis, and had 
even begun a letter to that effect. But now 
— how could he? What would his college 
friends say if they knew that his girl ” was 
somebody’s kitchen-girl? Would she not be 
a disgrace to him as his wife? What con- 
geniality could there be between science and 
skillets — between Greek and grease? 

So he argued with himself, and was as 


80 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

miserable as he deserved to be. It must be 
urged in his excuse that he was only a col- 
lege boy, and his horizon had not yet widened 
sufficiently for him to form more than a 
college estimate of such things as these. He 
was applying his little Sophomore measure 
to the world’s great questions, and the an- 
swer was bound to come out amiss. With 
wrong premises, his syllogism could only 
reach a direful conclusion. Poor Harvey! 


CHAPTER VI 


FOR HARVEY^S SAKE 

The journey up the river was a perfect 
revelation to Maggie. All the seventeen 
years of her life had been spent in the little 
valley town among the Indiana hills and 
woods. She had many times gone as far as 
the river landing/^ and looked with awe 
and admiration at the great packets that 
glided swiftly by; and had dreamed vague 
dreams of the great cities between which 
they plied, and of the wonderful, active 
world which they represented. Now she 
was riding in one; and after the first be- 
wildering fear had passed, she gave herself 
up to the delight of the situation. 

Rev. Mr. Morris accompanied her to her 
new home, and he took much interest in 
making her journey pleasant and instruc- 
tive. He took her to examine the boat, from 
the boiler-deck to the pilot-house, through 
81 


82 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

the beautiful cabins, and around the upper 
decks. When these points were all visited, 
he found cozy seats on the sunny side of the 
boat, where they had a good view of the scen- 
ery through which they were passing. 

Winter had robbed the trees of their verd- 
ure, but only revealed more clearly the huge 
trunks and great limbs of the forest. Here 
and there the brown leaves clung to a beech 
or an oak, and amid the rocks and upon the 
cliffs nodded cedars and pines whose green 
robes relieved the browns and grays of their 
monotony. High on a cliff several hundred 
feet above the river could be seen the door 
of “ McHarry^s tomb.’^ The minister 
pointed it out to the girl beside him, and 
told her the story of the old steamboat cap- 
tain who had so loved the beautiful river 
that he had prepared this lonely tomb above 
it for his final resting-place. 

And was he really buried there? ” Mag- 
gie asked with much interest. 

“ Yes. His body was allowed to remain 
there for some time, but — as I have been 


FOR HABTETS SAKE 83 

told — was afterward removed to Louisville’s 
beautiful Cave Hill Cemetery. But the tomb 
is there; and for many years to come, the 
story of its owner will be told by the river- 
men in memory of their dead comrade.” 

What sort of man was he? ” asked Mag- 
gie. 

I do not know. He may have been very 
good, he may have been very evil. This 
only he can tell: he loved the beauties of 
river, and forest, and hill so much that he 
chose his burial-place here among them, far 
from the rush and turmoil of the world. He 
made for himself a strange and enduring 
monument.” 

Maggie gazed earnestly at the lonely 
tomb which had so strange a history ; then 
she wondered whether Harvey had seen it, 
and whether its story had been told to him. 
How her heart would have thrilled could 
she have known how he had looked at it 
but a few months previous, and wished that 
she were beside him, that he might point it 
out to her, and tell her the romantic story. 


84 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

She took a keen delight in looking upon the 
scenes that had met his eyes, and imagin- 
ing his thoughts concerning them. He was 
the one person in all the world whom she had 
left to love, and her heart clung faithfully 
to him in spite of the long, dreary silence 
that had fallen between them. 

Mr. Morris left her to go and talk with 
some other acquaintances, and she basked 
in the warm winter sun, and mused in 
happy silence. She dreamed beautiful 
dreams of the things she was going to learn, 
of the advantages that were to be hers, of 
the advance she was going to make “ for 
Harvey’s sake.” 

Then came a sudden chilling thought: 

Perhaps it has all come too late. Has 
not Bessie Brooks, who already possesses 
these advantages, stolen his heart from you? 
What good will it all do you, if such is the 
case? ” 

She shivered, and drew her wraps more 
closely about her. Then she murmured 
bravely : 


FOR HABYETS SAKE 85 

Even if it be so, I will learn it all for 
Harvey^s sake. My love for him shall make 
me better, even if I cannot have his love in 
return. I love him well enough to give him 
up to her, if the surrender will make him 
happier.’’ 

Then the traitorous tears fell in spite 
of the brave heart. Her education had 
begun. 

When the city was reached, she shrank 
close to the minister’s side and gazed won- 
deringiy about her. She knew that the 
world was great, but had never realized how 
great, and busy, and noisy it could be. She 
was a little, insignificant speck in the broad 
stream of humanity; and was appalled by 
the loneliness that swept over her in the 
midst of multitudes. A great fear entered 
her heart. What would become of her when 
Mr. Morris went home again? Would she 
ever be able to find her way through these 
streets alone? How could she ever reach 
home again? Her heart fainted under its 
burden of homesickness. Then came its 


86 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

one comforting whisper : “ Bear this for 

Harvey^s sake.” 

The home into which she was ushered ex- 
ceeded even the pictures of her dreams. The 
soft carpets upon the floor, the beautiful 
pictures upon the walls, the large cases of 
books, geological specimens, and curiosities, 
the bric-a-brac, the flowers, the air of ele- 
gance and reflnement, all were bewildering. 

And this was to be her home! Would 
she ever feel at home here? ” she wondered. 
^ Would all these beautiful rooms become as 
familiar as the old, bare house at Sharon? 
Would she ever feel as if she belonged 
amongst them? Would she ever move as 
easily and gracefully as this lady who was 
advancing to meet Mr. Morris and herself? ” 

Then she became conscious that Mrs. 
Wallace was saying: 

And this is Miss Dean? I am glad to 
welcome you to our home, and hope that we 
will be able to make it so pleasant for you 
that you will forget to be homesick.” 

Maggie murmured something about being 


FOR HARYETS 8AKE 


87 


“ glad to come,” or words to that effect, and 
blushed, and stammered, and looked as awk- 
ward as possible. 

Mrs. Wallace did not appear to notice her 
embarrassment, however, but turned her at- 
tention to her brother-in-law, and gave the 
girl a chance to become a little more at ease. 

After a time she said: 

“ I suppose you would like to see the room 
that is to be yours. I will ring for Maggie, 
and she will show you the way, and intro- 
duce you to the house and our customs. By 
the way, your name is Maggie, too. It will 
be rather confusing to have two Maggies. 
Would you object to being called Margie? ” 
No, indeed,” Maggie answered. I 
think it is really a prettier name than Mag- 
gie.” 

So it was settled. She not only entered 
a new home, but was called by a new name ; 
and the old life, and the old Maggie, were 
left behind. 

It was but a little while until the first 
novelty wore off, and Margie settled down to 


88 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

the routine of her new life. Her duties 
were very light, and she took especial pleas- 
ure and pride in doing them well. She as- 
sisted Maggie in the care of the beautiful 
rooms. She dusted the books and the orna- 
ments, polished the silver, helped Mrs. Wal- 
lace in the care of her plants, and performed 
many similar duties. These were arranged 
so that school-hours should be free; and she 
had already been enrolled in the city’s great 
army of students. 

She took up her school duties eagerly and 
zealously. The company of so many stu- 
dents was inspiring. She had been accus- 
tomed to standing at the head of her classes 
in the home school, and pride and ambition 
bade her win a like position in the new one. 
It was not such an easy matter here, where 
there were so many trained minds that had 
come up through the regular grades and had 
the foundation of their educations so care- 
fully laid. But Margie was not discour- 
aged. 

If it were easy, I should not be learning 


FOR HARYETS SAKE 


89 


much. If it were not so hard to gain, it 
would not be worth striving for,” she told 
herself. 

Working upon such principles as these, 
she soon won the respect of teachers and 
students, and life became very bright for 
her. 

She was surprised to find how soon the 
elegant house became familiar to her, and 
how natural its customs appeared. In her 
capacity as waitress she studied the eti- 
quette of the best society. Her bright eyes 
were always on the alert to catch the man- 
ners of those whom she heard spoken of as 
most correct in social customs; and she 
earnestly strove to pattern her own conduct 
after these models. 

Mrs. Wallace had been pleased with her 
quiet intelligence at first, and took much 
interest in the girks marked improvement. 
She treated her more as one of the family 
than as a servant, and gently advised, com- 
mended, or reproved, as she deemed neces- 
sary. 


90 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

Margie^s rapid advancement in her stud- 
ies won the approval of both Mr. and Mrs. 
Wallace; and her faithfulness in her home 
duties and constant desire to please the 
master and mistress of the house gained 
their regard. They had no living children, 
and the long-repressed affection of their 
natures began to flow out to this bright 
young girl whom Providence had brought 
into their home. They associated her more 
with themselves, and less with the other 
servants. When vacation came, so that she 
was at home all day, her duties about the 
house were changed. Another waitress was 
procured, and Margie became Mrs. Wal- 
lace’s especial assistant and companion. 
That lady was actively engaged in benevo- 
lent and society work. Margie gradually 
became her private secretary. Mrs. Wal- 
lace had a typewriter, and Margie soon 
learned to handle the machine with rapidity 
and accurateness. 

“ I cannot stay here always,” she told 
herself. “ Sometime I shall have to depend 


FOR EARTETS SAKE 


91 


on myself for my living, and typewriting 
is an important line of business. It will 
make one more chance for me in the world, 
if I learn it well.^’ 

So, following her rule, she seized the op- 
portunity eagerly, and labored to perfect 
herself in this new acquirement. She stud- 
ied the social and business letters she was 
required to write; the forms for receipts, 
bills, and accounts ; until she became famil- 
iar with almost every kind of work that is 
ordinarily required of a secretary. 

Mr. Wallace examined her work appro v- 
ingly. 

If you keep improving in this way, Mar- 
gie, I shall be tempted to steal you away 
from my wife, and give you my office- work,^’ 
he said laughingly. 

Indeed you will not! ” Mrs. Wallace ex- 
claimed. Margie is mine, by right of dis- 
covery. I need her too much to give her 
up to you now.” 

Mrs. Wallace took Margie with her in 
many of her visits of benevolence, and 


92 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT VP 

drives about the city. In this way the girl 
became familiar with the various phases of 
city life. Her eyes were always open, her 
mind always ready to see and learn every- 
thing that came within her range. And the 
governing motive behind it all was ever the 
same : For Harvey’s sake.” 

She would have been astonished if she 
could have realized how vastly she had im- 
proved in the few months that had passed 
since her change of homes. Had she but 
known it, she was receiving an education 
which — even in his college course — Harvey 
was not gaining. The habits of college 
dormitory life are rarely conducive to refine- 
ment and elegance in manner. Young men 
grow careless and free-mannered, when liv- 
ing in this way. Social forms are thrown 
aside, and unconventionality reigns su- 
preme. They do not realize whither they 
are drifting, till a return to society reveals 
to them what habits they have been forming. 
So it was, that while Margie was advancing. 


FOR HABVETS SAKE 93 

Harvey was retrograding in this portion of 
their education. 

When school re-opened in September, 
Margie entered with enthusiasm upon her 
work. It was to be her last year in the city 
schools, and she desired to make it carry 
her as far as possible; for she expected it 
would be the end of her education. 

One evening she returned home with a 
flush on her cheeks, and excitement written 
all over her face. 

Mr. Parsons — of the school board — 
was at the high school to-day, and he an- 
nounced that the school board had decided 
to otter a valuable prize to the student who 
makes the highest grades this year,’’ she 
told her friends that evening. 

And Miss Margie Dean is going to try 
for it?” questioned Mr. Wallace quiz- 
zically. 

Indeed she is ! ” replied the girl. 

Then,” continued the old lawyer, you 
may inform Miss Margie Dean that if she 


94 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

wins the prize I will pay all her expenses 
for a two years^ course in college.” 

Margie looked at him eagerly for a mo- 
ment, and then the magnitude of her oppor- 
tunity and of his kindness swept over her. 

A great lump rose in her throat and 
choked the reply she would have made. She 
dropped her head upon the table and wept 
from sheer excitement. 

There, there, child ! ” said the old gen- 
tleman, passing his hand gently over the 
bowed head. “WeVe neither chick nor child 
of our own; so why should we not help you? 
Why has the Lord given us wealth, if not to 
be used in his service, and for the good of 
those about us? Do you think we have not 
appreciated your earnest endeavors for self- 
improvement? Do give us the privilege of 
taking a hand in the good work, so that we 
may claim a little of the glory of your suc- 
cesses.” 

A long, eamest conversation folowed, in 
which Margie received much encourage- 
ment and good advice from her two friends. 


FOR EARYETS SAKE 


95 


From that evening the scholarship was a 
mutual interest; and Margie worked with 
all her might, that her beloved friends 
might not be disappointed by her failure. 

For the first time, Harvey became sec- 
ondary. It was now: 

For the sake of Mr. and Mrs. Wallace.” 


CHAPTER VII 


IMPROVED OPPORTUNITIES 

Weeks and months slipped around, and 
Commencement Day came in all its glory of 
music and flowers, bright young faces and 
happy hearts. Mrs. Wallace had taken 
especial pride in seeing that Margie was 
suitably gowned ; and amid all the array of 
youth and beauty upon the opera-house 
stage, no one was more attractive than she. 
She completely won her audience; and 
when, at the exercises, the prize was 
awarded to her, there was a perfect storm 
of applause, while flowers fell in showers 
at her feet. If Margie was elated, her 
friends were no less proud and happy over 
her success. Their year of mutual interest 
had given her a warm place in their hearts, 
and she had become dear as a daughter to 
them. 

As for Margie, all her love was lavished 
96 


IMPROYED OPPORTUNITIES 97 

Upon these friends who had taken her into 
their home and their hearts. Her old home 
and life were left forever behind. Her step- 
mother had already been married to 
Tom Nelson, who had rented her farm, and 
the Morris family had moved away ; so that 
the only tie in Sharon for Margie was her 
father’s grave. 

Not a word had come from Harvey during 
the year and a half that had passed since 
she left Sharon. He, too, was fast becom- 
ing a memory, and that memory was marred 
by the thought of his faithlessness to her in 
the time of her sorest need for his tender- 
ness. 

She thought often of him, and wondered 
much concerning him. How was he pros- 
pering in his studies? Was he making as 
brilliant a record as he had done that first 
year? He had only one more year before 
him. What would he do when his course 
was finished? Was he as much in love with 
Bess Brooks as ever? She did not for one 
moment think that Bess could ever refuse 


98 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

such a man as she was sure Harvey would 
be. Through all her advance in thought 
and culture, her heart clung faithfully to 
her ideal of him. She knew she was ad- 
vancing, but was he not ahead? Would he 
find her any more congenial if he should 
meet her now? Did he ever think of her 
any more? Would he be glad if he could 
know of her success? He had not cared for 
what she had gained during that first hard 
year of his absence. Perhaps he would 
care less now. But some day — some day — 
perhaps they would meet again, and then, 
even though he did not love her, he would 
not be ashamed to recognize her as his 
friend. 

The summer days passed in active prep- 
aration for the college life ahead. Mrs. 
Wallace spared no pains in preparing an 
abundant and suitable wardrobe for her 
foster-daughter. Margie spent many hours 
in reviewing the college studies which she 
had pursued during her last year in Sharon. 
Her high-school diploma would serve her 


IMPROVED OPPORTUNITIES 99 

in place of examinations in the branches it 
covered; but the other studies would carry 
her still farther through the course if she 
could take them out.” She also found an 
especial pleasure in comparing the Regis- 
ter ” of the college to which she was going 
with that of the one in which Harvey would 
take his Senior Year, as the Courses of 
Study ” were much the same. 

“ A year behind,” she would murmur 
sadly. “ That will be the very best I can 
do. But, then, I have done all I could. It 
is not from lack of effort that I have failed.” 

She would turn away with a sigh, and 
plunge into her review- work more ardently 
than ever. 

September found her in her college home. 
As Harvey had said, she found the very at- 
mosphere inspiring. She had experienced 
much the same feeling when she had entered 
the home of Mr. Wallace. Here it existed 
in a still greater degree, since every mind 
was bent in the same direction, and every- 
one was striving for the same goal. 


Lof C. 


100 THE GIRL WHO KEPT VP 

She arrived at the college at the same 
time with a number of other girls. They 
were shown into the reception-room, where 
they were welcomed by the president and 
several of the teachers, registered, and were 
assigned to rooms. 

Miss Brooks,^^ the president — Miss 
Gordon — had said, I will send you to 
Number Twenty-six, and Miss Dean may be 
your room-mate. I trust you will both find 
the arrangement satisfactory. You may 
show Miss Dean upstairs. Your trunks 
will be sent up directly.’’ 

Miss Alma Brooks was a little butterfly, 
of a girl, who had not impressed Margie 
very favorably in the short time they had 
spent in ttie omnibus and the reception- 
room. 

She was not a new scholar,” and was 
therefore a little inclined to be patronizing 
toward this stranger room-mate. She chat- 
tered ceaselessly as they went up the stairs 
together. 

Oh, dear, this poky old room ! ” she 


IMPROYED OPPORTUNITIES 101 

cried, as she ushered her companion into 
Number Twenty-six. I did want a cor- 
ner room, where we could look across to 
the other building, and over at the univer- 
sity campus. But then. Miss Gordon never 
does give me what I want. There’s one con- 
solation, though,” she added, as she tossed 
hat, gloves, and wrap upon the bed, this 
room fronts on the main entrance, and we 
can see everybody that comes, and stare the 
university fellows out of countenance when 
they come up to church on Sundays. That’s 
good ! ” she cried ; for Margie had opened 
both of the large windows, and let a flood of 
air into the room. 

Is this your second year here? ” Margie 
asked. 

Yes,” Alma replied, I wanted to go 

to W , where Bess and Walter are, but 

papa would not let me. That is such a big 
university, you know, and the students 
have such larks. Bess has no end of fun. 
But papa said : ^ No. I don’t mean to 

have a second daughter spoiled.’ You see. 


102 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

Bess has got to be such a dreadful flirt. 
Walter don’t approve of her one bitj and I 
know he persuaded papa to send me to this 
old ‘ Convent and Cemetery/ instead of to 

W . Bess would have had to come here 

too, only she won a scholarship last year, 
and that saved her. She finishes this year.” 

Are you a Sophomore? ” Margie asked. 

“ Oh, dear, no ! ” Alma cried. “ I’ll be 
lucky if I finish all the preps, this year. I 
just hate languages. I wish Csesar had 
never lived, or else had been killed in one of 
his wars. Will you finish all the preps.?” 

“ Yes. I hold a high-school diploma that 
will carry me past them.” 

Oh, how lucky ! Then you’ll help me, 
I’m sure, for you look awfully good-natured. 
Here come the trunks” — as there came a 
thumping and bumping outside the door. 

Boll them right in, Sam,” she said, open- 
ing the door, and addressing the darky 
porter. 

The girls unpacked and arranged their 
belongings, until the supper-bell put an end 


IMPROYED OPPORTUNITIES 103 

to their work. Then they joined the stream 
of laughing, chattering girls that poured 
down the great stairways, to the dining 
room. 

Margie was glad when the retiring-bell 
closed the eventful day, and gave her a 
chance to think over what it had brought to 
her. 

A strange fate had placed her in intimate 
companionship with a sister of the girl who 
had stolen Harvey’s heart away from her. 

Could it be possible that Alma resembled 
Queen Bess? Surely not. She was pretty, 
after a fashion, but so frivolous, and a long 
way from intellectual. She was not at all 
like what Harvey had described Bess to be. 
She was sure she should not like her, but 
she hoped she would find herself mistaken. 
But — oh, comforting thought! — she would 
now hear from Harvey once more, and learn 
something of his progress and plans. With 
that thought she fell asleep. 

The days that followed were busy ones. 
Alma’s respect for her room-mate rose 


104 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

higher every day, as she saw her advance 
beyond Preps., Freshmen, and Sophomores, 
and take her place among the Juniors. The 
girl was smart enough, if only she had not 
been so utterly frivolous, and had her head 
filled with all sorts of silly notions. She 
knew enough to respect brains in other peo- 
ple, especially when she could draw upon 
them for her own advantage. She began 
to admire Margie immensely, not only on 
account of her intellectual ability, but also 
for her pleasant disposition, her graceful 
dignity, and last — but far from least — her 
stylish dresses. Margie had been very ret- 
icent concerning herself, so that Alma had 
been obliged to draw upon her own imagina- 
tion pretty strongly, and so had invested her 
room-mate with many advantages of wealth 
and position that were purely fabulous. 

Margie was so busy with her own work, 
and paid so little heed to much of Alma’s 
chatter, that she was unaware of this. Even 
if she had known, she would not have cared. 
She would only have supposed that other 


IMPROVED OPPORTUNITIES 105 

people paid as little heed to Alma’s stories 
as she did. 

She could not bring herself to ask many 
questions concerning Walter and Bess and 
their friendship with Harvey. She felt that 
she could not reveal her secret to this girl, 
and have it discussed in the letters that 
passed between the sisters. So it was only 
in the most general way that she ever men- 
tioned the subject; but satisfied herself as 
much as possible by the chance information 
obtained from the bits of letters that Alma 
chose to read to her. 

If Bess and Walter had been questioned 
in regard to their sister’s room-mate, they 
would have replied that they judged from 
Alma’s letters that she belonged to a wealthy 
Cincinnati family, and was a very paragon 
of elegance, dignity, and intellect. 

Thus it came about, that, though so nearly 
connected, Margie and Harvey did not come 
into communication with one another. 
Sometimes the girl almost made up her 
mind to write to him. Then doubts of the 


106 


THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 


place Bess Brooks held in his regard 
checked her pen. Alma had described him 
as One of Besses satellites.’’ Whether 
that meant much or little with Bess, Margie 
did not know. She never dreamed that his 
faithlessness was due to the wrong impres- 
sion he had received in regard to her posi- 
tion at Mr. Wallace’s. Even if she had been 
told, she would not have believed that so su- 
perficial a reason could have turned him 
from her. So she did not risk the chances 
for a second repulse; but contented herself 
with the little news from him that she re- 
ceived. This very thing made her more pa- 
tient with her uncongenial room-mate, and 
kept them together through the entire year. 
She still cared enough for Harvey to be un- 
willing to lose the one source of informa- 
tion concerning his progress and welfare. 


CHAPTER VIII 


A NEW MOTIVE 

Religion had formed a very small factor 
in the life of Margie Dean. She had been 
taught that it was the proper thing to attend 
church and Sabbath school, and say her 
prayers night and morning. There had been 
no family prayers in her father’s home after 
the death of his first wife. His second wife 
had held a grudge against the church 
people,” for some fancied slight, and was 
loud in her opposition to them and their 
customs. This opposition grew by constant 
nurture. She allowed her husband to mur- 
mur a hasty blessing over their meals; but, 
to use her expression, she “drew the line at 
prayers.” 

Margie, following the example of her 
father, had held to the habits formed before 
the advent of her stepmother; but her reli- 
gion was only a visible form, and her 
107 


108 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

prayers merely lip-service. God was a very 
unreal person with her, so shadowy, so far- 
removed, that she felt as if he had little to 
do with her life and destiny. Wisdom had 
been the idol at the feet of which she had 
bowed, and for which she had striven. 

At Mr. Wallace’s she had entered a dif- 
ferent atmosphere. Eeligion was there con- 
sidered a joy, a necessity, a first principle 
in the conduct of life. Margie realized that 
God was a real, ever-present being; but be- 
yond that she had not gone. She was too 
busy with her studies, too anxious to over- 
take Harvey, to take the time to consider 
religious questions. Some day she would 
study these things, when her time was not so 
fully occupied.” Like all young people, she 
failed to realize that duties increase in num- 
ber with years, knowledge, and experience; 
and did not see that her present held more 
leisure than the future could offer her. 

At college her religious impressions had 
been intensified. Alma had said : 

^^You just feel religion in the air, here. 


A NEW MOTIVE 


109 


I could almost swear that Miss Gordon 
makes up her Bible. I never have to go on 
the ^ green stool ’ to confess my sins but she 
has a text suited to the occasion. I used 
to ask her where I could find them, just to 
see whether she was making them up, but I 
always found them where she said I should ; 
so I had to give up that she was honest. But 
it seems to me that the Bible would be an 
awfully uncomfortable rule to live by. It 
is all ‘ Thou shaft not.’ It does well enough 
for old people who don’t care for fun any 
longer, and who are expecting to die almost 
any day ; but I want my fun first. There’ll 
be time enough to be gloomy when I am old.” 

Which goes to show that Alma’s religious 
principles were as defective as Margie’s, 
only. Pleasure was the god she worshiped. 

The Week of Prayer was always observed 
in O College. Short daily prayer-meet- 

ings were held, at which the attendance was 
optional. In the evening there was always 
a regular service in the chapel, which was 
conducted by some minister; and these ser- 


110 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

vices the girls were required to attend. 
This year, it was announced to the students 
that Rev. Mr. Hamilton — a noted evangelist 
— had been secured to assist the minister 
who supplied the college pulpit regularly. 
The announcement was made one Sabbath 
afternoon at the regular service. 

Margie found Alma in a bad humor when 
she reached her room. 

Now the siege will begin/^ she said. 

To-night they will separate the sheep 
from the goats. To-morrow study-hours 
will be shortened, to make time for prayer- 
meetings. The ^ goody-goodies ’ will meet in 
sections to pray for us poor ^ sinners/ who 
will be herded in the chapel to listen to sol- 
emn warnings. It’s terribly tiresome. I sit 
in the back row of settees, so it isn’t so hard 
on me as it is on those in the front row, who 
have to stand the worst of the fire. I al- 
most always smuggle a pillow and my Latin 
book in under my shawl, and proceed to 
make myself comfortable. The settees are 
not bad if you have a pillow to sit on, and I 


A :new motive 


111 


don’t lose a bit of time off my lessons. Some- 
times I get my pillow down on the floor and 
take a nap. The teachers can’t see me from 
the platform, and Kate Douglass wakes me 
up at the right time. But one does get 
mightily tired of it. If the ^ goody-goodies ’ 
would let me alone I wouldn’t care. But it 
makes me mad to have them act as if I were 
the worst ^ goat ’ in the herd.” 

She stamped her little foot so spitefully 
that Margie laughed. 

You act like a rather savage little 
^ goat,’ I must admit,” she said ; and Alma 
laughed in spite of her ill-humor. 

I do hope you won’t get religious, Mar- 
gie,” she said anxiously. You suit me just 
as you are. I don’t know what I’d do if I 
couldn’t fly to my room to get away from the 
preaching. It would be simply awful if you 
got at it.” 

Margie smiled. 

You need not fear me,” she said. I 
promise to let you alone.” 

As Alma had predicted, a division of the 


112 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

students took place that evening. All pro- 
fessing Christians were directed to meet 
in sections, and the large number of non- 
professors were left to meet in the chapel. 

A thrill of awe — almost of fear — swept 
over Margie. It seemed like a small fore- 
taste of the Judgment Day. The very thing 
that had aroused Almazs scoffs riveted her 
attention to the solemnity of the subject, 
as she watched the Christian students file 
out of the chapel, she thought: 

Is it always to be thus with me? Am 
I destined to be ‘ left behind ’ in every- 
thing? ” 

The arrow of conviction had struck home 
before ever a word had been preached. 

Then followed solemn days, in which a 
wave of intense religious feeling swept over 
the school. Little companies of girls gath- 
ered in their own rooms in voluntary prayer 
meetings, to plead for the conversion of 
especial friends. There was no excitement, 
no strong, personal persuasion; but every 
unbeliever in the school felt herself under 


A. NEW MOTIVE 


113 


the very focus of prayer. Numbers came 
out on the Lord’s side. A young converts’ 
meeting” was appointed to be held in the 
reception-room. Here the new Christians 
were gently instructed and counseled, and 
here they offered their first public prayers 
for those of their friends whom they had left 
behind. 

Every evening this assembly grew 
larger, and every evening the sinners’ 
meeting” decreased, so that those who re- 
mained began counting their numbers to see 
who was the last one missing. Margie and 
Alma were still among the number. Margie 
had been convicted from the first, but in 
spite of Eev. Mr. Hamilton’s plain, earnest 
sermons, the way did not appear clear to 
her. She felt her sinfulness, her need of a 
personal Saviour, her hopeless condition, 
and her desire for salvation. She realized 
that above all things she wanted the Lord 
for her Father and Friend. But,” she told 
herself, he does not want me. I must 
prove my desire and my sincerity before he 


114 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

will accept me. I must cleanse my heart of 
its evil before he can be willing to come 
to and abide in it.’’ 

So she struggled with her misery, while 
those about her mistook her cold dignity 
for indifference. 

As for Alma, Margie noticed that the 
truth was working in her frivolous heart. 
The girl was restless and ill at ease. There 
were frequent traces of tears on her face, 
and the pages of her study-books, upon 
which she appeared to be intent, were not 
turned. The pillow and the Latin book had 
ceased their visits to the chapel. Margie 
was sure that the girl was deeply moved. 
But she said nothing. She had promised to 
let her alone, and she would not violate her 
word. Even if she did speak, what could 
she say? She would prove but a “blind 
leader of the blind.” And so the days 
moved on. 

One evening after supper Margie found 
Alma lying upon her bed with her face bur- 
ied in the pillow. Without a word, she went 


A NEW MOTIVE 


115 


and sat down beside one of the windows, 
and gazed steadily out at the sunset fading 
in the west, while tears rolled unheeded 
down her face. 

Silence reigned unbroken, until the bell 
for chapel services sounded through the 
building. Then both girls rose, and, passing 
their arms around one another's waists, de- 
scended the stairs without a word. 

Before the reception-room door Alma 
stopped. 

I can’t stand it any longer. I’ll give up 
to the Lord. I’m going in here. Won’t you 
come too, Margie? ” 

There was a world of entreaty in her 
voice, and her arm drew her friend lovingly 
toward the open door. But Margie silently 
shook her head, and went on her miserable 
way alone. Even Alma — the giddy, foolish 
girl whom she had almost despised — had 
left her behind! And despair swept over 
her soul. 

To the girls in chapel her face appeared 
more icy than ever. 


116 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

We can count on Margie Dean to the 
last,” they said. 

Then Rev. Mr. Hamilton announced his 
text : “ A man that hath friends must show 
himself friendly : and there is a Friend that 
sticketh closer than a brother.” 

What a comfort such a Friend as that 
would be,” thought poor, lonely Margie. 

Harve was the only ^ brother ’ I ever had, 
and he deserted me. I know what that 
means. Oh, if the Lord would only be my 
Friend ! ” 

‘‘ ‘ He that hath [or would have] friends 
must show ” repeated the 

minister's impressive voice; and Margie’s 
head went down on the back of the seat 
before her. 

It had all come to her in a flash. She 
saw her false position. She was the un- 
friendly one — not the Lord. He was only 
waiting for her to bid him enter her heart, 
while she was barring the door until she 
could cleanse a room for his reception. 

He knows how dark and evil it is, yet 


A NEW MOTIVE 


117 


he wants to come in. Why should I refuse 
any longer? Lord Jesus, the door is open. 
Do thou take possession of my heart, and 
do with it as thou wilt. I am not worthy 
that thou shouldest come under my roof; 
but speak the word only, and thy servant 
shall be healed.^’ 

The struggle was ended, the victory won. 

“ Look at Margie Dean’s face,” the girls 
whispered. She has been converted.” 

There was a joyful little prayer-meeting 
of two in Eoom Twenty-six that night ; and 
the Lord was present to bless the young 
hearts that had so recently yielded them- 
selves to his service. 

If I had known how sweet it was, I 
would have given up long ago,” Alma said. 

How strange that I used to think religion 
gloomy. Why, it is all light and joy. There 
is no fear, no darkness any more. The Lord 
will make the way plain, and give us the 
best things for us. Oh, I am so happy ! ” 

So, with a mutual Friend and mutual in- 
terests, these two girls, so unlike in disposi- 


118 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

tions and ambitions, were drawn into a 
strong and lasting friendship. Henceforth 
their highest aim was to live close to their 
Lord, and to make his service their sweet- 
est duty. 

Before the revival closed, every student 
in the college was converted. The rest of 
the year was a joyful one. Teachers and 
students were all united by the bonds of 
Christian fellowship. Everyday duties 
were glorified by being done Heartily, as 
unto the Lord, and not unto men.’’ 

It seems to me I have wasted a great 
deal of my life,” Alma said to Margie one 
evening. I have cared for nothing but 
dress and fun. I would not study, even 
though I have had the best of opportunities. 
So here I am, dragging along in the preps., 
when I ought at least to be a Sophomore. I 
shouldn’t like to say it to everybody), but I 
don’t mind telling you that I am awfully 
ashamed of myself. Now I will try to prove 
that I am in earnest, by going to work as I 
ought to have done all along, and I’ll see 


A NEW MOTIVE 


119 


whether I cannot leave every one of these 
old preps, behind me this year. It will be 
hard work, for what I have pulled through, 
I don’t more than half know, and I have a 
poor foundation to build upon. One can’t 
be a thorough Christian and be unfaithful 
in her everyday duties. Keligion, to be 
worth anything, must go all the way 
through one’s self. And I don’t intend to 
insult the Lord any longer by abusing the 
gifts and powers he has given me.” 

That is true,” answered Margie. I 
never realized before this what a grand 
privilege life is. Nothing seems little and 
worthless any more. It is so comforting to 
go to him for help when the lessons are 
hard. I love to feel that he cares for my 
success, and is glad when I overcome diffi- 
culties. Just the same as my own dear; 
father would feel if he were alive. I have 
always felt that I did not really belong to 
anybody, since father died. I was all alone, 
and there was no one who really loved me; 
but now I do belong to someone, and I have 


120 THE GIRL WHO KEPT VP 

a certain home, and an ever-present Father. 
Life is all changed for me. It is well worth 
living when you know there is One who 
cares how you live it, and who has promised 
a sure reward at its close.” 


CHAPTER IX 


COMPARISONS 

It was commencement week at W . 

Visitors were pouring in for the various 
closing exercises. Students were anxiously 
preparing for finals.” The various classes 
were holding their class days, and the Se- 
niors had planted their class tree with ap- 
propriate ceremonies. The academy Senior 
exhibition was over : the baccalaureate 
sermon had been preached; the conserva- 
tory commencement had taken place. 

Harvey St. Clair was strolling through 
the beautiful campus, and by his side 
walked Alma Brooks. 

Isn’t it all lovely here? ” she cried with 
characteristic enthusiasm. I am so glad 
that our commencement came last week,, 
so that I could be free to come. I have so 
longed to see this wonderful place; for Wal- 
ter and Bess have described it in such glow- 
121 


122 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

ing terms. And now that I am here, I find 
that it exceeds even my dreams. I fear that 
it will spoil my own college for me.” 

Why not come here, then? ” Harvey in- 
quired idly. 

“ I wanted to come last year, but papa 
would not let me. Since Bess has become 
such a sad flirt, he no longer believes in co- 
education.” Sensible man,” thought Har- 
vey.) “ I was awfully rebellious at first, but 

I learned to love O , and have been quite 

well satisfied — until now,” with a little sigh. 

“ And what appears to make the greatest 
difference between the two colleges? ” asked 
Harvey, a little amused by the girPs incon- 
sistency. “ Are not the same studies pur- 
sued in both places? Have you not quite as 
good professors as are here? ” 

Oh, yes ! O is not one whit behind 

the rest of the college world; but it is the 
largeness of everything here that enthuses 
me. I love a crowd. I like the bustle and 
stir — the great classes — the large atmos- 
phere of study. Margie laughs at me, and 


COMPARISONS 


123 


scolds me for despising little things. She 
says that despising little things makes us 
incapable of appreciating greater ones ; and 
that little opportunities neglected build a 
wall between us and great privileges.’^ 

Who is Margie? She appears to have 
found the Philosopher’s Stone of content, 
anyway.” 

Margie? My room-mate, my dearest 

friend, the smartest girl at O . She 

practices what she preaches, too, which 
makes the preaching doubly emphatic. I 
wish you could know her.” 

You do not wish it any more than I,” 
returned Harvey, with some interest. I 
admire brains immensely. When I hear a 
young lady recommended as smart, con- 
sistent, and contented with the opportuni- 
ties that come to her, I feel sure that she 
possesses an uncommon amount of brains, 
and therefore I cannot help counting her a 
desirable acquaintance. Where is your 
friend’s home? ” 

In Cincinnati. I spent my last Christ- 


124 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

mas vacation with her, and had the most 
delightful time imaginable. Mr. and Mrs. 
Wallace are lovely.’’ Harvey smiled invol- 
untarily at the feminine adjective, but Alma 
failed to see it. They are very wealthy, 
and live in the most elegant of homes; yet 
they are far from being haughty in man- 
ners. They seem to be more proud of Margie 
than of anything else in the world — and I 
don’t blame them. She is such a darling. I 
wish I could be like her.” 

In what respect? ” 

Oh, everything ! I am little and dumpy, 
while she is tall and slender. Her hair is 
a lovely brown, while mine is an unmiti- 
gated red. She is graceful and easy-man- 
nered, while I move with a cyclonic rush. 
Then she is smart — so smart! Oh, dear! 
That is the most unattainable thing of all,” 
and she sighed so dolorously, that St. Clair 
laughed involuntarily. She flashed him a 
saucy glance from her hazel eyes. 

Are you laughing because she has 
brains, or because I have notf’^ 


COMPARISONS 


125 


I was laughing at the largeness of your 
burden of discontent/’ he returned. 

Don’t you believe discontent is a good 
thing, sometimes? ” 

That depends.” 

“ What a clear answer ! ” she exclaimed. 

When is discontent a good thing? ” he 
questioned. 

Then you admit its desirability,” she 
answered wickedly. 

He laughed. 

I should not like to be obliged to cross- 
question you on the witness-stand, if you 
were to turn my words back on me that 
way.” 

That is as fair as turning back honest 
questions,” she pouted. 

I see you are determined to make me 
answer you. No; I do not believe in dis- 
content. I think, however, that I under- 
stand your meaning. You use discontent 
as a synonym for dissatisfaction, do you 
not? You see, we lawyers quibble at 
words.” 


126 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

“ I catch your meaning/’ the girl an- 
swered quickly. Satisfaction is full 
gratification of one’s desires, and content- 
ment is making the best of what you 
have without worrying because it is not 
more.” 

Exactly. You ought to write a diction- 
ary.” 

Then, as a definition for ^ lav^er,’ I 
would write, ^ A man who makes you answer 
your own questions, and convicts you when 
you are not guilty,’ ” she said saucily. 
Then she added more soberly : What 

would become of mankind if they felt no 
dissatisfaction? ” 

The world would stop where it is. We 
should shrivel up and perish with dry rot,” 
he answered vigorously. 

Then you consider dissatisfaction the 
motive power of the world, do you? ” 

Yes. It is the reaching out after 
wealth, or pleasure, or fame, or knowledge, 
or power that moves men to great effort.” 

Then you think that satisfaction is a 


C0MPARI80:tfS 127 

token that the soul has reached the limit of 
its possibilities? 

More than that. It is proof positive 
that the soul has ceased to grow. Where 
there is growth, there is a corresponding 
increase of possibilities.” 

What a comforting thought! How it 
makes life open up before one, and what 
a solemn thing it makes of living, after all. 
There is the grand thought of the opportu- 
nities ahead, and the fear that one will be 
unequal to them when they are reached.” 
There was a depth of feeling in the girPs 
tones that caused St. Clair to look at her 
more attentively than he had heretofore 
done. He had paid her attention simply 
out of courtesy to his friend Walter, and 
had felt it a species of martyrdom that 
would be pleasant only when it was a mem- 
ory. His experience with Bess Brooks had 
not been so happy as to make him desire to 
cultivate the acquaintance of another girl 
from the same family. His opinion of Alma 
had been the same as the one that Margie 


128 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

had first formed : A frivolous little but- 

terfly of a girl, whose highest ambition is 
to follow in the footsteps of her elder sis- 
ter’’ — and he had treated her accordingly. 
Now he saw that beneath the mask of fri- 
volity was an earnest face, within the mind 
a noble motive, and in the heart a character 
different from that he had judged. So he 
turned to her with real interest. 

You are leaving out the idea of growth, 
which will make us equal to our possibili- 
ties as they come to us,” he said. 

“ No,” she replied quickly. I do not 
forget. Suppose we are capable of grasp- 
ing our opportunities — what if we misuse 
them? Would not that be worse than fail- 
ing to attain?” 

If that is the way you look at life, no 
wonder it is a solemn thing to you,” he 
said, ignoring the question which he did not 
wish to undertake to answer. 

I did not always look at it so,” she re- 
turned, with a retrospective look in her 
eyes. I have wasted the most of my life 


COMPARISONS 


129 


heretofore, and thought all the while that 
I was making the most of all that was in 
it. This winter I suddenly realized where I 
stood, and determined that I would no 
longer insult the Lord by neglecting and 
misusing his gifts to me. It is that resolve 
that makes life such a solemn thing. Great 
opportunities bring so much greater re- 
sponsibilities, that one almost shrinks from 
both.’’ 

St. Clair drew a quick breath. He had 
found the reason why this girl was so dif- 
ferent from her sister. Alma had reached 
a higher plane of living than Queen Bess, 
with all her boasted brain-power, had at- 
tained. She had risen above the fog of the 
world that distorts and hides the real 
shapes of duties and pleasures, and through 
the clear air of God’s truth she could look 
down on the questions of everyday life, and 
view them in their just proportions. 
Though religion was a neglected study in 
St. Clair’s education, yet he felt the dif- 
ference it had made between these two 


130 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

girls ; and his respect for the younger sister 
rose in proportion. For the first time in 
his life he felt that there was a height that 
brain-power could not reach, and suddenly 
realized that the girl whom he had con- 
sidered so far beneath him was truly above 
him. 

The conversation had reached a point 
where it was decidedly difficult for him to 
carry it on; and he was much relieved to 
hear Walter calling. 

He and Alma waited until her brother 
came up. 

I have fairly called myself out of 
breath. What depth of science had you 
two reached, that you failed to hear my 
gentle racket? Walter asked. 

It was not depths, it was heights,” St. 
Clair answered. Your sister had gotten 
me quite off my feet. It was time you came 
to the rescue.” 

“Well, Alma! Is that the kind of girl 

O has made of you? Maybe we^d better 

take a post-graduate course there, Harve, 


COMPARISONS 


131 


instead of at Yale/’ said Walter teasingly. 
Alma laughed good-humoredly. She was 
accustomed to Walter’s chaffing. 

Why don’t you inquire as to my urgent 
business?” he went on. 

We were mercifully giving you a chance 
to get your breath again,” Harve said ; and 
Alma added quickly : But you have not 
availed yourself of that privilege.” 

Perhaps you will not condescend to a 
game of tennis, then,” Walter retorted. 

Kate Collins and I challenge you to a con- 
test ; and unless Alma has been taking some 
lessons in the game since I last played with 
her, you’ll have to look out for your cham- 
pionship, St. Clair.” 

Alma turned with flashing eyes. She had 
become passionately fond of tennis during 
her last year at college, and had practiced 
so industriously that she had come to be 
considered one of the best players. Her 
eyes sparkled with fun as she thought of 
the surprise in store for her brother; while 
she answered with ominous meekness : 


132 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

Maybe you’d better let me play part- 
ners with you, so as not to disturb Mr. St. 
Clair’s laurels. They would surely be safe 
in such a case.” 

“ I’ll risk them with you,” said Harvey 
with a laugh. 

Then the three went to join Miss Collins, 
and proceeded at once to their game. 

Alma was on her mettle. She threw her 
whole energy into her play. Her balls were 
well placed, her back-hand drives called 
forth highest praise, and several times, by 
her swiftness of motion, she carried dismay 
to her opponents by giving them a quick, 
cross-court stroke. Her skill aroused St. 
Clair’s enthusiasm, and he played so well 
that the game was a perfect “ walk-over ” 
for them. 

What has come over you, Alma? ” 
queried Walter, as they sat down to rest at 
the close of the game. Who taught you 
those back-hand drives? They are im- 
mense.” 

Margie,” was Alma’s answer. She is 





“ Marg-ie is not a common g’irl, I wish 3mu knew her.” 

Pane 133. 



COMPARISONS 133 

my inspiration in everything. You ought 
to see her play.” 

That is the friend of whom you were 
speaking a while ago, is it not? ” asked St. 
Clair. 

Yes,” interrupted Walter. “ From 
Almk’s accounts she is a perfect paragon of 
beauty, talent, and sweetness. If I thought 
her influence would prove as beneflcial to 
me as it has to Alma, I^d seek her acquaint- 
ance. Can you not persuade her to spend 
part of the summer at our home, Alma? ” 

That is hopeless. Mrs. Wallace is pre- 
paring a book for publication, and Margie 
is going to spend the summer at the type- 
writers desk.” 

Is not that rather an uncommon pro- 
ceeding for a young lady in her circum- 
stances?” questioned Harvey. 

Margie is not a common girl,” returned 
Alma promptly. I wish you knew her.” 

I wish I did,” answered Harvey fer- 
vently. 


CHAPTEE X 


RETROSPECTION 

Harvey and Walter had arranged to 
spend two weeks of their vacation visiting 
at one another’s homes, before they settled 
down to their summer’s work. Their col- 
lege course was finished, but they had de- 
cided to study law, and therefore intended 
to take an additional law course at Yale. 

Their first visit was to be made at Sha- 
ron. Harvey had not been home since the 
first summer after his college course began, 
as he had obtained work for the summer in 
the college town. Now he began to feel 
eager for a sight of his old home. Beyond 
the joy of seeing his parents there was 
nothing to call him hack. 

He thought much of Maggie, as the boat 
sped down the river, and remembered how 
eagerly he had looked forward to seeing her 
when last he had visited home. There was 
134 


RETROSPECTION 


135 


no merry crowd waiting for him on the 
bank when the boat drew np to the shore. 
His father was there with a warm welcome, 
but in spite of his effort to the contrary, 
his thoughts turned with a sort of home- 
sickness to the time when Maggie’s eyes had 
smiled a welcome, and her hand had rested 
on his arm as they climbed the bank to- 
gether. 

Walter discovered his friend’s mood, and 
kept up a brisk conversation with Mr. St. 
Clair during the whole of their homeward 
ride, so that Harvey could be left to his 
thoughts. The years dropped out between 
the time of his first farewell and his present 
home-coming. His heart beat with the old- 
time fervor when they passed the gate at 
the end of the lane, where he and Maggie 
had said good-by. Once more he looked 
into her dark, tearful eyes, and heard her 
pleading that he should not turn from her 
during his absence. He remembered how 
indignantly he had put aside the very idea, 
and smiled sadly over this proof of his ig- 


136 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

norance of the world and of himself. Here 
was the path which they had trodden so 
often together. It looked narrow, but they 
had always found it wide enough for them 
to walk side by side. Yonder was the 
schoolhouse where they had spent so many 
happy winters, and worked so hard in 
friendly rivalry. 

Now it was all over. He was a man, 
educated and refined ; she — was some- 
body's kitchen-girl.’’ He said it in bitter- 
ness to himself, and felt as if the gulf be- 
tween them were immeasurable. 

A wave of doubt swept over him. Had 
he gained more than he had lost? Would 
he not have been quite as happy and much 
more contented if he had never left Sharon 
at all? Would not this girl’s pure, true 
love have made up for all he might have 
lacked otherwise? Would it not have been 
better for her if he had remained? If he 
had stayed at home, he would doubtless 
have married her. Then she would not have 
been obliged to go out into the world to 


RETROSPECTION 


137 


earn her living. She would have satisfied 
his ideal of what a woman should be, for 
he would never have known a superior. 

Then he began to wonder how much she 
had changed. He could not imagine her 
loud or coarse in manner or words. Mag- 
gie Dean could never become that. He 
could not believe that she would ever be 
less good and true than she had been in 
the old days. Could he care for her again, 
if he should meet her? Could he put from 
him the remembrance of the stylish, grace- 
ful, refined girls with whom he had been as- 
sociating, and satisfy himself with her com- 
panionship? No, no. He felt that would 
be impossible. Yet he was very miserable, 
and not a little conscience-stricken on ac- 
count of the neglect he had shown her. 

For the first time he considered the utter 
loneliness that must have been hers after 
Mr. Deanes death. 

And I never even wrote to express my 
sympathy ! How could I be so hard- 
hearted? How could I be so cruel? What 


l‘d« THE GIRL WHO KEPT VP 

good will all my education do me, if it only 
serves to make me unkind to those who are 
in trouble, and cruel to the ones who love 
me best? Will it not be a curse rather than 
a blessing? ’’ 

With such questions as these he torment- 
ed himself — not only during that ride home, 
but for several days afterward. He was not 
a very entertaining companion for Walter, 
but the latter understood his mood, and 
took a grim satisfaction in it. He had often 
thought of the bright, ambitious girl of 
whom Harvey had talked so much that first 
year in college ; and had wondered what had 
become of her. He had several times made 
inquiries about her, but Harvey had been 
very reticent in his answers; so that Walter 
only knew that her father had died, and she 
had gone out into the world to make her 
living. Since coming to Sharon, she was 
often in his thoughts, and he was constantly 
listening for some word to satisfy his curi- 
osity in regard to her. He divined that it 
was the loss of her familiar companionship 


RRTROSPEGTION 


139 


that made Harvey so restless and ill at ease 
in his old home. He suspected that Har- 
vey^s conscience was troubling him, because 
of his neglect of her; and waited in silence 
for the outburst which he was sure would 
come. 

They had been out for a long tramp 
through the woods one day, and on their 
homeward road had seated themselves on 
the crest of a hill that overlooked the val- 
ley. Walter was very fond of sketching, 
and as they sat and rested, his pencil was 
rapidly reproducing the scene on one of the 
pages of his sketchbook. Harvey watched 
him for some time in silence; then his 
long-repressed uneasiness came out in 
words : 

Walt, do you think that a personas busi- 
ness is an index to his character? ” 

Walter shot him a quick glance from 
under his eyebrows, and saw that Harvey^s 
eyes were fixed upon the old Dean home. 
Immediately he understood the situation, 
and answered accordingly; 


140 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT VP 

“ Not always. Circumstances often con- 
trol or limit a person, so he cannot choose 
that to which he naturally inclines. You 
cannot judge a man^s character entirely by 
his choice of business, but you can tell much 
by his conduct in whatever business he may 
engage. Truth, integrity, ambition, and 
faithfulness cannot be concealed by an 
humble calling. He who is content to half- 
do the commonplace was never created to 
fill a high position; and a servant is often 
more of a king than he who occupies a 
throne. Outside circumstances may limit 
a man in choosing a business, but his own 
soul is the only limit to the kind of charac- 
ter he puts into it. Have I answered your 
question? ” 

Ye-es ; and yet I am hardly satisfied. 
What would you think of a person whom 
you had always considered ambitious and 
eager to advance, if that one should sud- 
denly give up his ideals, and step down to 
a lower plane of thought and society? ” 

I should first find out whether his ^ step 


RETROSPECTION 


141 


downward ’ was really ^ to a lower plane of 
thought and society/ or whether it was 
merely considered such from the arbitrary 
standpoint of social customs. Sometimes a 
step downward is really a step upward. In 
the second place, I should strive to learn all 
the attendant circumstances of such a 
change. I should inquire whether it was 
from choice or necessity. I should take 
pains to see that I was correctly informed. 
People often make mistakes in their asser- 
tions in regard to others, and ‘ jump at con- 
clusions ’ that are very misleading. I 
should find out whether he still retained his 
ambitions, hoping that some day they might 
be free to soar upward again. People are 
praised for giving rein to their aspirations ; 
but often the man who holds his in check 
deserves the most credit. It is easy to let 
a spirited horse run, but it requires 
strength of will and muscle to hold him 
down to steady, plodding work. See here, 
Harve, I^m tired of talking generalities. 
Will you please to narrow your question 


142 THE QIBL WHO KEPT UP 

down to the singular number, and tell me 
just what the case may be? Perhaps then I 
won’t have to talk all around the universe 
to answer you.” 

“ Well,” returned Harvey desperately, 
“ the case is this. Do you remember hear- 
ing me speak of Maggie Dean, who used to 
be quite a friend of mine? ” 

Yes. And I have been wondering ever 
since we came to Sharon what had become 
of her, and why you never mentioned her. 
What has she done, that you no longer 
number her as one of you friends? I notice 
you say she ^ used to be ’ a friend of yours.” 

A flush came over Harvey’s face. His 
uneasy conscience told that he should 
get no sympathy in his perplexity from 
Walter Brooks. So he hesitated over an- 
swering, until Walter exclaimed impa- 
tiently : 

Out with it, old fellow. Are you 
ashamed of her, or of yourself? ” 

I don’t know,” returned St. Clair. 

What do you think of a girl who will give 


RETROSPECTION 143 

up her studies, and content herself to be 
somebody’s kitchen-girl?” 

I give her credit for noble independence 
and an honest effort to earn her own living. 
A girl can work in a kitchen, and be a lady 
too. There is as much science in cookery 
as there is in Greek or mathematics, and it 
is a science that does us quite as much prac- 
tical good as they do. I do not see that she 
has forfeited the least right to your respect. 
If she possessed the noble character with 
which you have always credited her, will 
she not retain it still? Do you think that 
the preparation of food is any more del- 
eterious to character than the eating of it? 
Is it not better for our whole physical, men- 
tal, and moral systems, that we have brains 
in the cook, rather than in the idle lady in 
the parlor? ” 

Hold on ! Hold on ! ” cried Harvey, 
laughing in spite of his vexation. Any- 
one to hear you might know that you were 
studying to be a lawyer. Just give you a 
hint for a plea, and away you go, regardless 


144 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

of everything save your own side of the 
question/’ 

There is only one side of a question for 
a lawyer, and that is his own side. He 
must never admit that his opponent has any 
case at all. If he does, he knocks a large 
slice of the ground out from under his own 

feet. But to resume ” 

No, you don’t resume,” laughed St. 
Clair. “ Stop your generalities — of which 
you were complaining but a moment ago — 
and consider my individual case ; and do it, 
not as a lawyer, but as the judge who has 
to look at both sides impartially.” 

Walter sketched busily for a few mo- 
ments, and considered the situation; then 
he said: 

Are you sure that Miss Dean has ‘ gone 
as somebody’s kitchen-girl ’ ? Who was 
your informant? ” 

“ My mother wrote me that she ^ had gone 
to the city to work out.’ ” 

There are more ways than one of ^ work- 
ing out.’ The clerk, the typewriter, the 


RETROSPECTION 


145 


dressmaker, the school-teacher, all ^ work 
out’ quite as much as the kitchen-girl. 
Have you ever received any farther infor- 
mation than that? Did you ever write to 
the girl herself? ” 

No,” St. Clair admitted. 

‘^You’re a nice lawyer!” Walter re- 
torted. You did not even give the accused 
an opportunity to make a defense. Was 
it choice or necessity that sent her away 
from home? ” 

Necessity, I suppose. Her father died, 
and I suppose her stepmother gave her to 
understand that ‘ her room was better than 
her company.’ ” 

Suppose? Suppose? Why didn’t you 
write and find out the straight of it? ” 

I was too much disappointed in her, and 
too provoked by her action, to wish to 
write.” 

You mean that you were too much of a 
donkey! ” cried Walter, who was thoroughly 
provoked. “ There. I’ll let you off with 
that. I don’t want to be too hard on you — 


146 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

considering that it was my sister who 
addled your brains. But it does provoke 
me to think that any man could treat a nice, 
good girl as you admit you have treated her. 
It must have been grief and heart-break 
enough to lose father and home, without the 
additional loss of such a friend as you 
used ’ to be to her.’^ 

Don’t ! Don’t ! ” Haiwey exclaimed, 
pulling his hat down so that Walter might 
not see the pain on his face. I am sorry, 
and I am ashamed of myself.” 

You don’t know what a relief it is to 
me to hear you say so,” retorted Walter. 

It is bad enough for me to be ashamed 
of you, without having to be ashamed 
for you too. And now what are you going 
to do to prove that you are both sorry and 
ashamed? ” 

That is what is troubling me,” an- 
swered Harvey. I am not right sure that 
I want to do anything.” 

“ Shade of Blackstone, deliver me ! 
Have I got to be partner with such a fellow 


RETROSPECTION 


147 


as you? If you don’t know your own mind, 
how are you going to find out what is in 
the minds of other people? See here. I’m 
tired of this game of ^ Cross-questions and 
Silly Answers.’ Speak up like a lawyer, 
and plead your own case.” 

Walter threw down his sketchbook, put 
his pencil into his pocket, and leaned back 
against a tree. 

Do your sisters choose kitchen-girls as 
their associates? Does not society look 
down upon them? Does their work tend to 
refine them, and make them congenial com- 
panions for educated men?” Harvey 
paused for an answer. 

“ No, to the first. Yes, to the second. 
No, to the third. Go on,” said Walter sum- 
marily. Harvey laughed. 

It seems to me that you are throwing 
away your own argument pretty fast. 
Would you want to marry a girl who was 
somebody’s servant, and introduce her into 
society as your choice of all the women in 
the world? ” 


148 THE GIRL WHO KEPT VP 

“ That depends entirely on the girl her- 
self/’ 

Does not a man’s wife either help or 
hinder his success in business and with 
other people? Can a man afford to handi- 
cap himself with a wife who is socially his 
inferior? ” 

You make me weary with your constant 
harping on society and social equality. If 
you will be so good as to take common sense 
and justice as the basis for your argument, 
I will listen to you. Otherwise, let us have 
done with the whole thing.” Walter was 
decidedly out of humor. You assume ar- 
bitrarily that a kitchen-girl has neither 
brains, refinement, education, nor ambition. 
You concede nothing, and demand every- 
thing. That is just where the mistake of 
‘ society ’ lies. They consider the place, and 
not its occupant. They look at the effect, 
and fail to consider the cause. Thej^ push 
down, instead of helping up. They strive 
to prove their own superiority by calling 
attention to other people’s inferiority. Is 


RETROSPECTION 149 

there either common sense or justice in 
that? 

Will you not admit that in the majority 
of cases society is right? demanded Har- 
vey, ignoring the question. 

Yes, that is only too true,” replied his 
friend. But that is really society’s fault. 
By assuming superiority over the place, they 
drive multitudes of worthy girls away from 
it to more slavish methods of earning a liv- 
ing. Must the worthy suffer for the short- 
comings of the unworthy? ” 

There is neither ^ must ’ nor ^ must 
not ’ in the question. They simply do suf- 
fer. I admit that it ought not to be so, but 
what is there to make an even balance be- 
tween the two scales?” 

“ Nothing but the Spirit of the Lord, 
and the Golden Rule,” returned Walter 
soberly. 

Now, to return to my own case. Four 
years ago Maggie Dean and I were equal. 
During that four years she has remained 
where we were, while I have been constantly 


150 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

advancing. When I last saw her, after one 
year’s absence, I felt the uncongeniality 
that was growing between us. In the three 
years that have passed since then, have I 
not left her hopelessly behind me? Would 
it not be unwise for me to attempt to renew 
our friendship on the old basis? Would it 
not end in misery for us both? I admit 
that I miss the old, happy friendship, and 
sometimes I am tempted to wish that my 
ambition had never destroyed it. I almost 
wonder whether I have gained more than 
I have lost. But since matters stand as 
they do, would it not be best for all con- 
cerned if I let them alone? ” 

You are arguing but one side of the 
question,” answered the judge. Are you 
not assuming too much when you say ^ She 
has remained where we were? ’ How do 
you know what changes these three years 
have made in her? Perhaps she is ahead of 
you. Would it not be wise for you to find 
out just where she stands, before you decide 
to withdraw your friendship entirely? 


RETROSPECTION 151 

And now, if I were in her place, I would 
say: 

‘ Any young man who deserts me in my 
hour of trial; who turns from me without 
giving me a hearing; who considers me his 
inferior without even taking the pains to 
find out where I stand ; who thinks entirely 
of his own selfish interests ; is not one upon 
whose friendship I can depend, nor the man 
I can love. Mr. Harvey St. Clair, you may 
“ Gang yir ain gait” and I will go mine.’ 

That’s what I would say to you. 
Whether she will say it is a different ques- 
tion. You know perfectly well that you do 
not deserve any better treatment than that. 
You ‘ used to be her friend ’ in the days 
when you knew her. Now / am her friend, 
though I have never seen her, and even 
though she be ^ a kitchen-girl.’ 

‘‘ Come. Let us go over and call on her 
stepmother. Perhaps we can learn some- 
thing that will satisfy your fastidious ideas, 
and restore your truant friendship.” 


CHAPTER XI 


A PROVEN CASE 

A FLOOD of memories attended Harvey 
every step of the way up the familiar lane 
to the house behind the stately Lombardy 
poplars. As he and his friend passed 
through the great gate at the end of the 
lane, he remembered the talk he had 
held there with Maggie, the evening before 
he had first left for college. Back to his 
memory came her words: 

YouTl meet smart, pretty girls there at 
college, and will forget poor Maggie Dean 
— or only remember her to be ashamed of 
her.’’ 

He remembered how bitterly he had de- 
nied even the possibility of such a change, 
and sighed to think how truly she had 
prophesied. 

Here, at the little gate,"^ was where he had 

told her good-by the second time. He could 
152 


A PBOVEN CASE 


153 


see her again, as she appeared that night, 
and remembered the sad look in her dark 
eyes when he had murmured: 

When my course is done, I will come 
to you for' the reward, sweetheart/^ 

That was the promise he had left with 
her. How had he fulfilled it? He felt so 
bitterly ashamed of himself that, hajd 
Walter not been with him, he would have 
turned away, rather than face her sharp- 
spoken stepmother. 

That lady herself met the two young men 
at the door. 

Law ! Harve, I^m powerful glad to see 
you. I didn’t ’low as you’d come up here, 
bein’ as Maggie hain’t home; but then, I 
s’pose your feet is so in the habit of strayin’ 
up our lane that they jest brought you 
whether or no. Come right into the best 
room. Mr. Brooks, did you say this was? ” 
in answer to Harvey’s introduction. I’m 
right proud to be acquainted with you, sir. 
Take this cheer. There’s your old wooden 
rocker, Harve. I ’low you wouldn’t feel at 


154 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

home in any other cheer. Does Sharon 
seem homelike to you? 

Oh, yes,” Harvey replied. It does 
not appear to have changed at all.” 

There’s some improvements, though,” 
returned the lady quickly, with local jeal- 
ousy. There’s Squire Free’s new barn, 
and Watson’s new paling fence, an’ the 
church has been painted over agin, an’ the 
schoolhouse has a new roof. Then there’s 
the plank sidewalk. Sharon’s gittin’ quite 
citified. Dirt hain’t good enough to walk 
on any more.” 

Both young men laughed appreciatively; 
and Walter said : 

This is a beautiful little valley, and I 
am glad I have been privileged to see it. 
Have you lived here long? ” 

Yes, a consid’able while. Miller an’ me 
moved here nigh about fifteen years ago. 
We’d only been here a year when Miller he 
up an’ died. A year after that I married 
Dean. He’s been dead now nigh onto three 
year. I tried livin’ alone for a while, but 


A PROYEIf CASE 


156 


it’s mighty uphill work for a woman with 
three children to support, an’ hirin’ a hand 
to run the farm was dretful expensive. So 
I jest economized by marryin’ one.” 

Walter had never before met just such a 
person as Mrs. Nelson, and it was all he 
could do to hide his amusement. As Har- 
vey’s ^^dumb spirit” was still on him, 
he was forced to keep the conversation 
going. 

Does farming pay pretty well in this 
section of the country?” 

Tol’able well. Pertaters is the paying- 
est crop. Nelson flat-boats ’em down to 
Memphis, an’ gits a fair price for ’em that 
way. The orchard pays pretty fair, too. I 
made my livin’ out of it before I married 
Nelson. When it comes to picklin’ and pre- 
servin’, an’ cannin’, an’ jellyin’ there hain’t 
a woman in the country can work around 
me; an’ I made consid’able money outen it. 
Ef Maggie had of stayed, I reckon we could 
have made more; for Maggie was a master 
hand at it for a girl. But she had her head 


156 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

sot on gittin’ educated, an’ her paw left her 
three hundred dollars for schoolin’, so she 
went away to Cincinnaty. I s’pose you 
hear from her a sight oftener than I do, 
Harve? ” This last inquiringly. 

Harvey answered guiltily: 

No. I have not had a letter from her 
since she left home. Where is she, and 
what is she doing? ” 

Hain’t heard from her ! ” ejaculated 
Mrs. Nelson. That do beat all. What 
can have come over Maggie Dean, that she 
hain’t wrote to you? She alius seemed to 
set such store by you. I didn’t s’pose she’d 
ever git so high-headed that she wouldn’t 
write to you. ’Pears like that’s most alius 
the effect of goin’ to the city, though. I’m 
blessed glad I hain’t to be tempted that 
way, for I s’pose I’d be like all the rest, 
jest sail around with my head up in the 
air, or set on the aidge of my cheer with 
my hands folded in my lap, and jest look 
and smile.” She laughed heartily over her 
own sarcasm, and Walter was glad of the 







I have not had a letter from her since she left home.” — Page 156. 





>’;• . * ’- 5 ':/«’" tgvT-'V,,. 

-- ^v '- V V^** > 

^: ■; r. V “* ■ ' ..^ 

'•S'... . -:v«i.. ^ 


’ * - ■ f ' ' 'T Ji t '%/ '■ 

-. ■ -'. '■ ' -■ ' -; > < / ' 

kW^NT'^K^/* * ^^-1*’*“ f ^./ J ■ '. ^ 

i-'i-'. '. »* ^ V. ^ 

• . /' • . • I ^ • • • 

’*•’• 't s«>)’ ’^. • . - ■ 

*|£>^ ’ 'U: -Ij' • ■ 


<« 


-V. 


* ' ■ M * 

M 4 • - . 

♦> • C-- • 

A • . * * ^ 




■ ‘'Nl ' '-1 V v.^v- ^ ?t ? ' 

^ ■>' r^'.-’. • >’.^1 ' *■ '■ 

j^'v . ■ < ';VV::, 5 i - 

; •!>"- : . V » r: ^ 

f IM 


*1. 

■ -’ ^ .A 


« 


'..S' 


P F 



:vt 2 ^ 


^ , 


. Y - . 4 

' 1 * A 







\ ' - 



■ > • ^^kt- ■ .-V. ^ ► 

' .* L.* • 

s r\ ’ *?'* * '■'* 

*«*av iu.^iidl^T • 




%i 


-s' ^ '■ • -‘V . ^ ^ 

V -♦ i T . _ * ■ • - • ‘ S ^ 

fj • .r • r ■■*; ■• • 

... - .•■ . - lijjC'SJ. '-vS...% • • '.,v-jtt^. v....^j- 

BMgfaK ' . ■^.' ' '-■•'■ ^’. •‘' -- ■••' i'r 

•• / “ v¥>-'?U'L s .* . • ■ -j. ^ » 


-'/w 


r. 


■Pi 


>« 





A PROVEN CASE 157 

chance to relieve himself of some of his re- 
pressed amusement. 

Harvey hardly heard what she said. He 
was looking around the familiar room, and 
w^ondering how he could ever have con- 
sidered it the cheeriest, coziest place in the 
w’orld. There was the same hideously 
bright red, green, and yellow carpet on the 
floor; green paper shades at the three win- 
dows ; a sheet-iron drum stove ; a table 
with a red spread in one corner; an old- 
fashioned settee in another; while Maggie’s 
little rocker creaked beneath her step- 
mother’s portly form. There were pictures 
of The Belle of the South,” “ The Pride 
of the North,” and others of like character 
— impossible beauties with simpering looks 
and streaming curls, done in the brightest 
of colors and framed in pine-cones. There 
was a hair wreath in a wonderful frame 
constructed of beans, rice, peach-pits, cof- 
fee-grains, and similar articles glued to a 
wooden foundation in fanciful figures and 
finished with a coat of varnish. From the 


168 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT VP 

center of the celling hung an air-castle ’’ 
made of oat straws and bits of red flannel. 
Harvey remembered helping Maggie to 
make it one summer four years previous, 
and wondered at its longevity. A thing 
of beauty is a joy forever ’’ he thought sar- 
castically. He pitied himself as he remem- 
bered how much he had once admired the 
atrocious pictures, and the impossible air- 
castle, and marveled over his own ignorance 
of art and beauty. 

You say Miss Dean has been away at 
school?” Walter inquired. He saw that 
Harvey was not going to help him very 
much, and was anxious to bring the con- 
versation around to the object of their 
visit. 

We-ell,” returned Mrs. Nelson, “ she 
has, and she hain’t. You see, it was this 
way. When her paw died I give her her 
choice of stayin^ here and helpin’ me with 
the fruit, or of pullin’ oft for herself. She 
wanted to go where she could study, so Mis’ 
Morris— the preacher’s wife — got her a 


A PB07EN CASE 


159 


place with her sister in Cincinnaty. Mag- 
gie was to work for her board an’ does an’ 
go to school. She likes her place first rate. 
She doesn’t have to work hard, an’ she gits 
a chance to go to school a heap ; an’ last time 
she wrote to me she was a-takin’ music-les- 
sons. So I guess she’s doin’ fairly well, an’ 
mebbe she can teach school some day.” 

Can you give me her address?” asked 
Harvey eagerly. I shall be in Cincinnati 
in a couple of weeks, and I should like to 
go and see Maggie.” 

No, I don’t believe I can. I hain’t no 
hand to write letters, so Maggie she does 
all the writin’ ; an’ I disremember the 
street an’ the number. I’m awful sorry, for 
I ’low Maggie would be powerful glad to see 
you.” 

But what is the name of the people with 
whom she is living? ” 

Well now, I declare, that’s plumb 
slipped my memory too. I alius speak of 
’em as Mis’ Morris’s sister’s folks, an’ Mag- 
gie alius says ^ Mis’ Morris’s sister ’ when 


160 THE GIRL WHO KEPT VP 

she writes, an’ so I jest didn’t charge myself 
up to remember the name.” 

Walter felt a thrill of pity and indigna- 
tion in his heart; pity for the girl who had 
been cast off by those who should have been 
her best friends, and indignation at this 
woman who so evidently cared nothing at 
all about her stepdaughter. He was sur- 
prised at himself for taking such an interest 
in a girl whom he had never seen, and not a 
little amused to find himself acting as her 
champion with these two people who had 
been her nearest friends. It was evident 
that there was nothing more: to be learned 
in regard to Maggie, but he was satisfied in 
having proved to Harvey that he had mis- 
judged and ill-treated a girl who was still 
climbing after her ambitions, instead of 
having “ stepped down to a lower plane of 
thought and society.” 

Mrs. Nelson was still continuing her flow 
of conversation, but it ivas now addressed 
to Harvey. 

Now that you’re done school, I suppose 


A PE07E2^ CASE 


161 


you’ll be cornin’ home an’ settlin’ down. 
What air you goin’ to do? Will you clerk 
in your paw’s store, or run the farm?” 

“No, I am not through school yet. I 
have finished at college, but I want to be 
a lawyer, so I have to take an additional 
course in a law school. Then I suppose I 
shall settle down in some large town. A 
lawyer would make a poor living in such 
a peaceable town as Sharon.” 

“ Goin’ to be a lawyer. Well, I never. I 
shouldn’t think, considerin’ her bein’ sech 
a strict church-member, that your maw 
would want you to go into sech a lyin’ pro- 
fession as that.” 

Both young men laughed. 

“ You must not condemn the whole pro- 
fession, Mrs. Nelson, simply because some 
of its members disregard the truth,” said 
Walter. 

“Air you one of ’em too?” asked his 
hostess with amusing ambiguity; and Har- 
vey laughed heartily as Walter answered: 

“Yes, I shall have to plead guilty. I 


162 THE GIRL WHO KEPT VP 

hope you will have a better opinion of us 
in the future, however. Since you know St. 
Clair here, you^ll know that there is at least 
one good lawyer.’’ 

Well now, I can’t hardly be sure of that, 
bein’ as I don’t know Harve any more. I 
used to know him like a book, an’ he was 
straight as a string, them days. But it 
don’t do to swear to what a person is, by 
what they was. Harve may be straight as 
as a string yet, or he may be crooked as a 
rail fence. How do I know? Dabblin’ in 
other folks’s quarrels hain’t a very im- 
provin’ business, to my notion, an’ I must 
say I’d a heap rather see both of you clerk- 
in’ or farmin’.” 

If we thought the law would have such 
an effect as that on us, we certainly should 
not study it. But there are evil men that 
should be brought to justice, and poor peo- 
ple who are oppressed, and widows and 
children who are helpless unless someone 
will make it his business to see that they 
have their rights. Does not a lawyer do 


A FBOVBN CASH 163 

good and necessary work in such cases as 
these? ’’ asked Walter. 

Yes, that’s all very well. I don’t know 
much about such things, thank Fortune! 
but I’ve heard tell that lawyers would do 
anything for money, an’ that a poor per- 
son didn’t stand no show with them at all ; 
that a man might chop his own wife all to 
pieces with a hatchet, an’ ef he had plenty 
of money, the lawyers would make him go 
clear, an’ swear he was the best man in 
seven counties, an’ that his wife chopped 
her own self to death. 

You boys may start in all right, but 
you’d better look out, or you’ll come out 
as mean as any of ’em. I hain’t much on 
religion or church folks myself, but I do 
be terrible set agin lyin’, an’ I don’t want 
to see anybody I keer anything about goin’ 
into it for a business. Now, Harve here 
has been jest like one of our family for so 
long, that I want to see him do well. I 
’low Maggie’d take it awful hard ef he 
didn’t pan out good. 


164 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT VP 

^^Air yon goin^ to be home all summer, 
Harve? 

“ No,” Harvey answered. “ I am going 
away next week. I shall spend a few days 
with my friend Brooks, at his home in Ken- 
tucky, and then go to Covington, where I 
have a situation for the summer. From 
there I shall go to Yale College in the 
fall. It does not leave me much time at 
home, but a fellow can’t stop to play much 
while he’s after an education.” 

I should think you’d come to the end 
of education after a while. Most things has 
an end sometime. You must be keerful 
not to overdo the thing, an’ git too much. 
There’s lots of things in the world it’s a 
heap better not to know, an’ you want to be 
a-lookin’ out for them. It hain’t a long 
step between smartness and meanness, but 
it makes an awful sight of difference with 
a fellow which he gets. 

Law, now! You hain’t a-goin’ al- 
ready? ” for as the clock struck five Harvey 
rose to his feet. I know five o’clock’s sup- 


A PROVEN CASE 


165 


per time at your house, summer or winter, 
but you needn’t go on that account. Jest 
stay an’ have supper here. I’ll fly round 
an’ git it in no time.” 

The young men thanked her for the invi- 
tation, and Harvey assured her that his 
mother was expecting them at home, and 
would certainly wait for them. 

Well, ef you must go, you must, I 
s’pose. But come up agin before you go 
away. An’, Harve, ef I can remember the 
name of them folks where Maggie is. I’ll 
send you over word, so’s you can go an’ see 
her. She’d be right proud to see you, I’m 
sure,” said the voluble lady, as she showed 
them out at the door. 

The two young men walked in silence 
down the lane. At the great gate Harvey 
broke the silence. 

“ I’ve been an unmitigated fool ! ” he ex- 
claimed. 

That is just what I have been trying to 
prove to you/’ returned Walter cheerfully. 


CHAPTER XII 


FROM DIFFERENT STANDPOINTS 

The Brooks home was an ideal one. On 
every side were evidences of the refinement 
and wealth of its inhabitants. The house 
itself was a large and handsome brick, sit- 
uated within easy drive of the business 
portion of the city, but far enough out to 
have spacious grounds about it. It was 
furnished with exquisite taste, yet nothing 
appeared to have been bought merely for 
display, but solely with reference to the 
comfort and pleasure of the owners. 

As Harvey sat in the elegant parlors and 
noted the velvet carpet, the costly curtains, 
handsome furniture, beautiful pictures, 
books and bric-a-brac, someway his thoughts 
went back to the call he and Walter had 
made at the Nelson home; and he con- 
trasted his present surroundings with that 

hideously ugly best room.^’ 

166 


FROM DIFFERENT STANDPOINTS 167 

He went farther than that. He thought 
of Maggie as he had last seen her, awk- 
ward, poorly dressed, uncultivated in man- 
ners, and compared her with the daintily 
robed, easy-mannered girl who sat near 
him, talking in well-modulated tones, and 
appearing in every way a fit representative 
of the elegance of her home. 

How could Maggie be better than she 
was? How could Alma help being all that 
she appeared? 

So Harvey thought, even while listening 
to Alma’s chatter, and attempting to keep 
up his share of the conversation. 

No wonder Alma and Bess were charm- 
ing, and graceful, and everything else at- 
tractive and desirable. How could they be 
otherwise, with such a home, and such 
training as had always been theirs? The 
atmosphere they breathed was refinement, 
the one aim in their lives was culture. 
They knew nothing of the pinching, warp- 
ing infiuences of poverty, toil, thwarted 
ambition, ungratified desire, and unculti- 


168 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

vated surroundings. Did they deserve as 
much credit for what they achieved as did 
the one who fought her way upward against 
all odds? Even if the three came out even 
at the end, would not Maggie really have 
more education than the other two? 

His wayward thoughts made his answers 
to Alma’s questions rather vague, and the 
girl noticed it. Suddenly she broke off in 
what she was saying, and exclaimed : 

I don’t believe you hear a word of what 
I am saying. Your thoughts are a thousand 
miles away. Won’t you tell me what deep 
subject absorbs you so? ” 

Harvey started guiltily. 

“ I beg your pardon for my rudeness,” 
he said. Then, after studying the girl’s 
bright face for a moment, he said : 

“ I believe I will tell you what was puz- 
zling me. Perhaps you can help my dull 
wits. As I sat here I could not help con- 
trasting your home, and your opportuni- 
ties, with the surroundings and the chances 
belonging to a girl I used to know at Sha- 


FROM DIFFERENT STANDPOINTS 169 

ron. Walter has told you of the call we 
made on a Mrs. Nelson, and of the queer 
ideas she had of us lawyers. 

Her stepdaughter is a very bright, am- 
bitious girl who used to lead all the rest of 
us a close race in the district school. Her 
one desire was for education, and since her 
father^s death, she has gone to the city to 
work for her board and clothes, while she 
goes to school. You see against what odds 
she works, and how slow her progress must 
necessarily be. Even though she attains 
the book-learning, she will miss the refining 
infiuences that are the native air of girls 
of your class. Yet, after all, will not her 
education be more extensive than that of 
those who have not had so far to climb nor 
such obstacles to overcome? Now, is not 
that question enough to excuse my wan- 
dering thoughts?^’ 

Alma’s merry face had grown very grave, 
as she listened to Harvey’s words. A few 
months previous she would have disposed 
of the question with a jesting, careless re- 


170 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

ply; but she had learned to look at all 
questions from a different standpoint, and 
there was something in this one that ap- 
pealed strongly to her new character. 

At length she said : 

I am glad you have given me the benefit 
of your thoughts. Perhaps you can help me 
out of some of my perplexities, since they 
lie so closely in the same line. This ques- 
tion of misused or unappreciated opportu- 
nities has borne very heavily on my con- 
science ever since I realized the Source of 
such benefits, and my accountability for 
them. I do not believe any of us realize 
how much we have, and how much more we 
might have if we would but grasp it. What 
we have, we look upon as a matter of course, 
and do not stop to reflect upon the respon- 
sibility that attends it. We overlook our 
chances, and misuse our gifts, and thus let 
slip the greater advantages that depend 
upon them. No, we who have so much to 
start with do not achieve as much as do 
those who climb up from a lower level of 


FROM DIFFERENT STANDPOINTS 171 

opportunities, and fight against such odds. 
I wish I knew this girl of whom you 
speak. I would like to help her, if I could ; 
though perhaps, after all, she would be the 
one to help me.’^ 

But she is somebody^s servant girl,’^ 
said Harvey — the old question of social in- 
equality coming to the front. 

If that position is a stepping-stone to- 
ward something higher and better, ought we 
to despise her for that?’’ questioned Alma. 

I know there is a feeling in society that 
those who do not work for a living are above 
those who do, and the former are more or 
less inclined to despise the latter. But — 
as you put it in your question — do we de- 
serve as much credit for what we are as 
those who are working their way upward 
merit for what they have achieved? 

Your position and Walter’s are singu- 
larly alike on this question. Have you ever 
discussed it together?” 

No. But we have learned to apply the 
same measure to things.” 


173 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

And what may that be? ’’ 

The Goiden Kule.’' 

Harvey felt suddenly that he did not wish 
to discuss the question any farther. Al- 
though brought up in a religious home, he 
had never given serious thought to the sub- 
ject of personal religion. During the time 
he was in college, he had been intimately 
associated with Walter Brooks, who was an 
earnest Christian ; but at the same time he 
had imbibed the skeptical views of other 
students who classed themselves as be- 
lievers in advanced thought.” They 
claimed that the Bible was all very well for 
those who were contented to rest upon the 
old, superstitious foundations, and believe 
implicitly in a Bible full of errors.” 

In his eagerness to attain the highest 
round of science and culture, Harvey had 
grasped at these new theories; and while, 
as yet, he was not given over entirely to 
them, still he was beginning to look with a 
kind of condescending toleration on those 
whom he considered less advanced than he. 



The girls unpacked and arranged their belongings. 
Page 102. 










■ ^'’: ' ' ‘Af V^'S 

••■iifi-fTf.'lrvrt^ '. 5 


V« 


V , 


C 


r- 





^ V 1 


“‘n 






r.- 




) « 







’4 





V 



’ * • 


« i 


’ : 



ri 


# « 




i ' ' t 








s , r 


■» t ' . 

»-k- ■ 


tt 




-:#i 






;'/ ■ sS' 1 * ■< 


I 1 


:i 


■-•V. - ' ’ ' "^-4v-*yK 

k 7 ' ‘ ^-V*i j ' jf ♦ -*' t^ * ‘ ^ A ’•'■*' ‘ * I ^ I ' *r 

K*'-* A^:| >< : •' . 'i' ' ' ■ ' '''^ J®7.v 

Br ii- '♦'■ ■*.■•.•- A,--' .> ‘^ ..' 4- ^r ' 

■ • "" i^rrp ... • 


t 


i 


iA , 


'' '. 


' ■»- 





■ 1 * KJh ■ 


■» 






.'jd 


~ I ^ ^ 1 * » • • • 

;■ . ^ ■« . 

■ >. . - : /"■* ^ Jj£., \: • . z' 




■ 




** 


••^LxV. ■^n .'.:*: 











FROM DIFFERENT STANDPOINTS 173 

In the present instance, he had an nncom- 
fortable conviction that this girPs religion 
was a step above him, since it could make 
her rise superior to a question that bound 
and galled him so severely. 

Alma noticed his hesitation. 

Do you not believe that if everyone 
looked on this question from Christ’s stand- 
point, that social distinctions would melt 
away? ” 

If all were as liberal as you and your 
brother, the world would move very differ- 
ently.” 

I was not referring to Walter and my- 
self. I spoke of Christ’s standpoint. Do 
you not believe in the leveling power of 
Christianity? ” 

I do not believe in levels,” was the re- 
joinder. 

It was an unhappy expression. I 
should have said the elevating power of 
Christianity. Do you not believe in that? ” 

^^Yes; I believe Christianity elevates all 
who are beneath it.” 


174 THE GIRL WHO KEPT VP 

Alma looked at him with wondering eyes. 

All who are beneath it? ’’ she repeated. 

That implies that there are some above 
it. Who are they? ’’ 

Harvey flushed uneasily. He was hardly 
well enough grounded in his new doctrines 
to undertake to defend them to this girl 
who looked at him with such cool, clear 
eyes. He was relieved when she went on 
to answer her own question. 

How absurd in me ! There can be noth- 
ing above God, and the distance between 
him and us is so immeasurable that there 
can be no limit to our advance upward. 

But we are getting clear off the earth 
now ; and our question in the beginning w^as 
an exceedingly earthly one. Where is this 
girl of whom you spoke? ’’ 

‘‘ She is somewhere in Cincinnati. I 
asked Mrs. Nelson where I might find her, 
but she had forgotten her address. She 
never writes to Maggie, so she says she 
didn’t charge herself up to remember it.” 

In Cincinnati. I will tell Margie about 


FROM DIFFERENT STANDPOINTS 175 

her. She and Mrs. Wallace take a great 
deal of interest in benevolent work, and per- 
haps some time they will run across this 
girl and be able to help her. Margie is so 
ambitious, and so watchful in seizing every 
opportunity that comes to her, that she 
would rejoice to help anyone who had the 
same ambition.’’ And immediately Alma 
determined to write that very day to Mar- 
gie, and ask her to keep on the watch for 
a girl named Maggie Nelson, in whom she 
had become much interested. The mention 
of Margie turned her thoughts from the 
subject under discussion. 

I wish you and Walter were not going 
away so soon. Margie is coming to make 
me a visit next month. Just now she and 
Mrs. Wallace are very busy over a book that 
Mrs. Wallace is getting ready for the press. 
After that is done, my turn will come. The 
rest of the summer she will spend in study, 
to ^ take out ’ several branches in the college 
course, so that she can have extra time for 
music when she goes back to college next 


176 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

fall. It makes me ashamed of myself, 
when I think of her. She is going to make 
the four-year course in two years, while — 
at the rate I was going — ^it would have 
taken me five or six. I shall always be 
thankful that I was thrown under her in- 
fluence.” 

“ From all I hear of her, she is a remark- 
able girl. I am sorry that your brother and 
I will miss seeing her. Perhaps we may be 
more fortunate after our course is finished, 
especially if we decide to locate in Cincin- 
nati.” 

At this moment Bess entered the parlors, 
and — as usual — claimed all of Harvey’s at- 
tention. While he chatted with her, his 
thoughts were with Alma. He could not 
help contrasting the principles of the two 
girls, as displayed in words and manners. 
He had experienced the treachery and sel- 
fishness of the elder sister, and had felt the 
earnest truth of the younger. He could not 
but admit that it was religion which had 
made the difference between them. He 


FROM DIFFERENT STANDPOINTS 177 

knew that they had started with equal 
advantages, and if there had been any dif- 
ference at all, it had been in Bess’s favor. 
Yet Alma had undoubtedly advanced be- 
yond her in all that was womanly, and 
sweet, and true. He felt irresistibly drawn 
toward this girl who could be by turns 
earnest and merry, saucy and sympathetic. 

During the days of his stay he found 
himself more and more attracted by her. 
She was constantly in his thoughts. He be- 
gan to think of her as being the embodiment 
of his highest ideals of what woman should 
be; and found himself eagerly looking for- 
ward to the time when, with education fin- 
ished, he could gain a place in the world 
that would win for him her regard. 

If Alma had been questioned in regard 
to her opinion of this young man, she would 
blushingly have admitted that she thought 
him very handsome, and talented, and a de- 
lightful companion. She might perhaps 
have added that she was glad that her 
brother was going to have such a desirable 


178 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

partner in his law business, and was very 
sure that they would be successful. That 
would have been quite as much as she would 
have said; but her thoughts went far be- 
yond that. She dreamed many delightful 
little dreams of what the future might have 
in store for her ; and Harvey was always the 
hero of her dreams. 

When Margie came to see her a few weeks 
later, Almazs references to her brother’s 
friend, her very evident interest in him, her 
frequent repetition of things that he had 
said, the eager light in her eyes when his 
name was spoken, betrayed more than the 
girl had admitted to herself. 

A great grief surged through Margie’s 
heart. 

Et tUy Brute! ^ she quoted to herself. 

Was it not enough that Bess should trifle 
with him and turn his thoughts from me, 
without having Alma flnish by stealing his 
heart? Oh, Harvey! if 2/ Harvey!” 

Outwardly she was calm and dignifled. 
She hid her secret in her heart, and to save 


FROM DIFFERENT STANDPOINTS 179 

herself the pain of being questioned, did 
not tell her friends of the old, sweet friend- 
ship that henceforth could only be a 
memory. 

So, though so near together, these two 
were held apart. To Harvey, she was Mar- 
gie Wallace; to Alma, she was Maggie Nel- 
son. Why could they not have discovered 
the little mistake that meant so much to the 
girl who loved them both? 


CHAPTER XIII 


CHANGED CONDITIONS 

Another year of study slipped swiftly 
by, and then the course was finished, and 
Margie received the long-coveted diploma, 
and with it the degree of B. A. She felt a 
great satisfaction as she held the well- 
earned parchment in her hand, and thought 
of the steps by which she had climbed. 
Then a little, dreary thought came to her in 
her happiness: 

“ What was there in the future for her? 
She had striven ‘ for Harvey^s sake.’ Now 
she had won, but Harvey had forgotten her. 
There was no one in all the world who cared 
for her, except Mr. and Mrs. Wallace, and 
upon them she had no claim. They had 
been very kind, but she could not expect to 
remain dependent upon them — she did not 
wish it even. But where should she go? 
What should she do? When the doors of 
180 


CHANGED CONDITIONS 181 

her college home closed behind her, what 
door would open to receive her? ’’ 

As she took off her beautiful graduating 
robe, and donned her traveling dress, she 
felt that she was starting upon a journey 
that had neither aim nor ending. 

Alma, who was helping her, noticed the 
sad look, and impulsively cried: 

Why, Margie, you look as if you were 
sorry to be through. If I could hope to gain 
half the honors you did to-day, and look 
half as lovely, I’d be willing to spend ten 
years on the course if necessary. I was 
so proud of you, dear. How I did wish 
Harvey and Walter could have seen you.” 

Margie turned away with white face and 
aching heart. One consolation, at least, 
would be hers. She would soon be away 
from Alma, whose devotion had been tor- 
ture all these months. The girl fairly wor- 
shiped her, and could not find ways enough 
to prove her devotion. Personally, Margie 
thought as much of her as ever; but there 
was one great wall of division between 


182 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

them, of which Alma was ignorant. All 
through the year Alma had corresponded 
with Harvey. Twice every week came 
bulky, lengthy letters, which the girl fairly 
devoured. 

All Margie’s strength of will power was 
required to control herself when these let- 
ters came. She knew just how delightful 
and entertaining every one of them was. 
She knew by experience how eagerly they 
were expected. She saw how Alma carried 
each of them in her pocket, and read and 
re-read it until a new one arrived. Then 
Margie would sit by her window, appar- 
ently intent upon her studies, but furtively 
watching Alma as she read the long letter, 
now laughing softly, now blushing, now 
reading out choice bits to her unresponsive 
room-mate, and at last closing it away with 
shining eyes and happy smiles, till poor 
Margie felt that she could bear no more. 
She soon learned what day the letters 
would arrive, and took especial pains to be 
absent from her room when the mail was 


CHANGED CONDITIONS 183 

distributed. She could not bear to see the 
familiar handwriting, perhaps, to receive 
into her own hands and then have to give 
to another what she felt should have 
been her own. It was a prolonged heart- 
break. 

Several times she had felt that she could 
bear it no longer, and made an effort to get 
a change of rooms. But either Alma would 
plead piteously for her to stay, or some 
other obstacle would be found that kept 
them together through the whole year. 

So, it was with a feeling of relief that she 
said good-by to her weeping room-mate, 
and left her college home behind her. 

A few days were happily spent in her 
Cincinnati home, and then the question of 
her future arose again. She studied long 
over her resources, and at last determined 
what she could do. 

One evening she had been doing some 
typewriting for Mrs. Wallace. That lady 
had been called away by a late caller, and 
Margie and Mr. Wallace were left alone in 


184 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

the library. Her task finished, Margie still 
sat fingering the keys of her instrument in 
an absent way, pondering on the one all-ab- 
sorbing subject. 

Happening to glance up from his paper, 
Mr. Wallace noticed her abstraction, and 
smiled at it. 

Of what are you thinking, my dear? ” 
he asked so suddenly that Margie started 
with surprise. Then she answered slowly : 

I was wondering whether it would be 
possible for me to get a position as type- 
writer somewhere for the summer.” 

The gentleman laughed. 

What put such an absurd notion as that 
into your head? Does not Mrs. Wallace 
keep you busy enough to satisfy your en- 
ergy? ” 

“ I have finished my college course. Is 
it absurd for me now to consider the ques- 
tion of earning a living for myself?” 

Don’t we furnish living enough to sat- 
isfy you? ” he asked quizzically. 

She looked at him reproachfully, and 


CHANGED CONDITIONS 185 

there was a hint of tears in her voice as she 
answered : 

“ Now, you are teasing. You and Mrs. 
Wallace have been more than kind to me. 
You have treated me as if I were your own 
child. You have smoothed the way before 
me, and helped me forward till my ed- 
ucation has gone farther than I ever 
dared hope. I am very grateful to you both 
for your goodness to me. Still, I feel that 
it would not be right for me to be dependent 
on you any longer. What little I do to 
help Mrs. Wallace does not begin to make 
up for the money you spend on me ; and I 
cannot allow myself to continue to live in 
this way. 

My old home is closed to me, so I shall 
have to make a new one for myself. I 
thought perhaps you would know of some 
one who needs a typewriter, and I could get 
a situation until I could find an opening 
somewhere as a teacher.” 

He had let her unburden her mind with- 
out interruption. Now he said : 


186 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

And what are Mrs. Wallace and I to do 
after you are gone? You seem to have left 
us out of your calculations.’’ 

She looked at him in mute surprise, and 
he continued : 

In these years that you have been with 
us, we have learned to love you and look 
upon you almost as our own daughter. We 
have taken pride in your advancement, and 
looked forward to the day when your course 
would be finished and we could keep you at 
home with us. Can you not imagine how 
lonely it would be for us two old people, if 
you should leave us now? Suppose one of 
us should die. Who would comfort and 
care for the other? My dear child, do you 
not see that we need you here to brighten 
our home, and to cheer us in our old age? ” 
His voice was very tender, and went 
straight to Margie’s heart. The tears were 
slowly slipping down her cheeks, as she 
made answer: 

All that I can do can never repay you 
for all that you have done for me, nor 


CEANQED CONDITIONS 187 

for all the money you have spent upon 
me.” 

As she spoke, she looked at her dainty 
dress, and thought of all the tasteful things 
in her wardrobe. 

It is a question of money, then, is it? ” 
he said with a smile. “ What if I should 
tell you that you are a wealthy girl, that 
you have all the money that any sensible 
girl need desire. Would your pride of in- 
dependence be satisfied, so that you could 
consent to stay with us? I have only been 
waiting for an opportunity to tell you what 
I did with the two hundred and fifty dollars 
which you placed in my hands when you 
first came here. How does it come that you 
have never asked about it? ” 

I supposed that was spent for clothing 
and books long ago,” Margie answered. 

“No indeed. You earned what you re- 
ceived. I saw a chance to invest that money 
in real estate in a booming Western city, 
where I was confident that values would in- 
crease. I did not intend that you should 


188 THE GIRL WHO KEPT VP 

lose anything by the transaction. If the 
property rose in value, you should receive 
the benefit; if I was mistaken in my specu- 
lation, you should at least receive your prin- 
cipal with interest. Fortunately, my judg- 
ment was correct. Your property has 
steadily risen in value, and to-day you can 
sell it fol* near to fifty thousand dollars. 
See. Here is the deed, made out in your 
name.’’ He took the all-important paper 
from his desk and gave it to her. 

Now, Miss Dean, will you be persuaded 
to give up your plans for independence, and 
stay with us ? ” 

The tears were streaming unheeded down 
her cheeks as she answered irrelevantly: 

Oh, I am so glad.” 

“ I must say you have a strange way of 
showing your gladness,” he said teasingly. 

Don’t you think so, wife?” — this last to 
Mrs. Wallace, who had just entered the 
room. 

That lady had taken in the situation at 
a glance, and appreciated Margie’s emotion. 


CHANGED CONDITIONS 


189 


I think she is our own dear girl/’ was 
all that she said, as she put her arms around 
Margie, and drew the brown h^d close to 
her breast. 

And so the question was settled. 

The sudden change in her circumstances 
led to a necessary change of plans for the 
summer. Her music lessons were taken up 
again, and she put her whole energy into the 
development of this large talent. She was 
Mrs. Wallace’s constant companion, a pet- 
ted daughter in this delightful household. 
Every day made her dearer and more neces- 
sary to the two people upon whom she lav- 
ished all her love. She did not go to visit 
Alma that summer. She felt that she could 
not yet bear to hear her speak of Harvey. 
The old love still clung to her, and she could 
not shake it off. Some day she hoped she 
would be able to conquer it, so that she 
might not feel that wild pain and jealousy 
that rose at every mention of his name. 

With the coming of cooler weather, she 
resumed her studies. She had determined 


190 THE GIRL WHO KEPT VP 

to take a post-graduate course at home, and 
earn the additional degree of Ph. D. There 
was no room now for sorrow or loneliness. 
Every moment was filled with delightful 
duties or with happy companionship. As 

the adopted daughter of Mr. and Mrs. 
Wallace,’’ society was ready to receive her 
with open arms and sing her praises. She 
soon became known in musical circles, for 
her voice was uncommonly rich and clear. 
As the possible heiress to the Wallace 
wealth, young men began to look upon her 
as a desirable acquaintance, and sought to 
cultivate her friendship. In the elegant, ac- 
complished, refined young lady no one 
would have recognized the shy, unculti- 
vated girl who had landed in Cincinnati five 
years previous. 

The life at Sharon seemed very far away 
to her. She had never been back. There 
was nothing to draw her to her old home. 
Correspondence with her stepmother had 
long since ceased. She knew that Mrs. Nel- 
son had never cared for her; and she could 


CHANGED CONDITIONS 191 

not bear to go back and see such a man as 
Tom Nelson occupying her father’s place at 
the table, his easy chair by the fire, his posi- 
tion as manager of the farm. The Morris 
family were gone. Harvey was gone. 
There was no one left who would care to 
see her. 

So time glided by, and in the new life, 
the new interests and hopes and ambitions, 
the old heartache was forgotten, and she 
reached a point where she could hear 
Alma’s mention of Harvey St. Clair with- 
out feeling the bitter pain and jealousy. 

By great exertion and earnest applica- 
tion, Alma gradually made up for the time 
she had w^asted, and was able to complete 
her college course within four years from 
the time she had entered. There was no 
room for frivolity in her life, which was 
filled to overflowing with hard work; and 
there was no longer a desire to waste her 
God-given time and talents. Life had be- 
come a serious thing, a glorious privilege. 
Her religion was a part of herself. It had 


192 tee EIRE WHO KEPT UP 

transformed lier whole life, and changed 
her from a giddy girl to a noble woman. 

Meanwhile, Harvey and Walter had fin- 
ished their Yale studies, and were ready to 
take up the pursuit of their profession. 
Through Alma, Margie learned that they 
had decided to locate in Cincinnati. The 
news set her heart to fluttering in the old 
way. 

They would surely meet again. Would 
they find one another much changed? 
Would they learn to care for one another 
again? For Almazs sake, she hoped not. 

With Harvey, the thought of Maggie had 
become a mere shadow. In all these years 
he had never heard from her. He did not 
know where she was, nor what life had 
brought to her, and — truth to tell — he no 
longer cared. She was only the girl he had 
left behind him, with his boyhood dreams, 
and ambitions, and ignorance. 


CHAPTER XIV 


REVELATIONS 

During the summer that followed Alma’s 
graduation Margie made her a long visit. 
Walter was at home for a short vacation 
before beginning business in Cincinnati^ 
and he added no little to the enjoyment. 
He had been very curious to see this young 
lady whom his younger sister appeared to 
idolize, and whom she described as being 
everything to be desired. He had found her 
dignified, graceful and refined, perfectly 
dressed, and attractive in face and form. 
She was free from the affectation that 
spoils so many girls, was quiet and sincere 
in speech and manner. 

Walter found himself wonderfully at- 
tracted by her. It was a pleasure to talk 
with her. She was so quick to catch a point, 
so ready in her answers, so genuinely inter- 
ested in the great questions of the day; a 
193 


194 TEE QIBL WHO KEPT VP 

sympathetic listener, generous in argument, 
kindly in victory, the young lawyer found 
in her a most delightful friend and com- 
panion. Above all, they soon found that 
they were on the same side of the great 
question of life, and were both earnest 
workers for the Heavenly Master. That 
formed the strongest bond of all the things 
that drew them together. 

It did not take many days for Walter to 
become convinced that of all the girls he 
had ever met, Margie Dean approached the 
nearest to his standard of perfection. 

They were together in the music room one 
morning, practicing some duets. Margie 
was seated at the piano, and Walter was 
turning over a pile of music, when he re- 
marked : 

My pleasant vacation will soon come to 
an end now. I had a letter from St. Clair 
this morning, in which he said he would 
soon be able to join me, and settle down to 
work. Poor boy ! The last two months 
have been hard ones for him. His father 


REYELATIOI^S 


195 


died of apoplexy, and his mother was pros- 
trated by the shock. She was a feeble 
woman, and though Harvey has done every- 
thing possible for her, she could not rally, 
but gradually faded away till last week, 
when she died.’’ 

Dead ! Both dead ! ” cried Margie in a 
voice so full of pain that Walter turned to- 
ward her in amazement. The tears were 
streaming from her eyes, her face was full 
of intense grief. She appeared to have for- 
gotten him. 

Father and mother both ! Poor 
Harve ! ” she said half aloud. She laid her 
arms on the music-desk, and dropped her 
head upon them, while her whole body 
shook with her sobs. Walter stood silent 
with amazement. 

He could not account for such grief in 
this girl for the sake of a man whom she had 
never seen. Even Alma, who he knew cared 
for his friend, had expressed no such grief 
as this when he had told her the news he 
had received. 


196 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

So Walter stood there, wondering and 
waiting. He longed to say something to 
comfort her, but was entirely at a loss for 
words. He could only possess his soul in 
patience, and wait for her to explain when 
she chose. 

Presently the intensity of her grief spent 
itself, and with a long sigh she raised her 
head and met his gaze of sympathy. She 
had entirely forgotten his presence, in the 
shock of the news he had given her. 

I beg your pardon,” she said. Did I 
frighten you? These people used to be my 
dearest friends, and I was overcome by 
your news.” 

He drew an easy-chair near her. 

That piano-stool is not a comfortable 
seat. Will you not take this chair, and tell 
me all about it. I do not understand.” 

She took the chair, and he sat down be- 
side her. 

“ There is little to tell,” she said. “ Sha- 
ron was my native town. My mother died 
when I was a little child. Next to my 



And you — are Mag-gie Dean?” — Page 197. 


PAt- 'm 


1 












i*» ^''v «♦ ' ' *"’ ^ ui^*' 
V ^ 




• •* 


5 V?- 


•* .?> 4 1 






• I 


■. . t.T' r!:->;-»^^ - “ : '« ® 


*« 














NV. 


5 ?^ 




4 ^ 


'•^ '^b - 

= ,,: , 'S ./ 




>• ‘ 


»»'». 


^ V 




• I -.r 


Afr-*( ' .' 


V. * 


'.f. t V; 


-«: '‘V 


ic: 




V 




V^’ I: 






►S^? 


^ J 


.Itl 


f: 




■u. 


■ffi 








a»i 4 s' 




-V' 


r ♦' 






x 4 # 


■p-^f V 


r>iiv 




1 ( 


l ^ 




LT# 




ril. 


If _►* 


% -i 


0 » •'2 




ilj 


<i ^ o» 


* T* 


jk / 








> <■ 


I • 












» li 


'•f 




•iit 


5 <. 


>- v«r 






* 


.Kl» 


,i*^ 


\ — 









REYELATIO:^S 


197 


father, Mr. and Mrs. St. Clair were my 
dearest friends. Their house was home to 
me. They had no daughter of their own, 
so they petted me. I had not heard from 
them for several years. Do you wonder 
that the news of their death shocked 
me?” 

Walter’s thoughts had been flying fast 
during her brief speech. Now he leaned to- 
ward her. There was a strange expression 
in his eyes, an intense feeling in his voice, 
as he said : 

“And you — are Maggie Dean?” 

“ Yes,” she answered simply. It was her 
turn to wonder at his agitation. 

“ Harvey has told me of you,” he said ; 
and she wondered why his voice was so 
husky. “ I wonder that we did not discover 
your identity sooner. We have been very 
blind. You will be a great surprise to Har- 
vey, for he lost trace of you several years 
ago, and had given up all thought of ever 
seeing you again.” 

Then Alma’s merry voice was heard, as 


198 THE GIRL WHO KEPT VP 

she came singing across the lawn. Margie 
rose quickly to her feet. 

Please do not tell anyone what I have 
told you. I could not bear to hear it 
talked over, just now,” she pleaded, hold- 
ing out her hand to him, like an entreating 
child. 

He clasped her hand in both of his, and 
walked with her as far as the door. 

Your wish is law to me, Margie,” he 
said tenderly; then she passed from him, 
and he turned back alone. He closed the 
door, and went and seated himself in the 
chair which she had just left. With his 
elbows on his knees, and his head within 
his hands, he sat and fought out a battle 
with himself. 

He had admired his sister’s friend for her 
improving influence over Alma, for her tal- 
ents, her energy, and the sweetness and 
goodness of her character. He had hon- 
ored her above every other girl of his ac- 
quaintance. He had been fascinated by her 
congenial companionship. All this he had 


REYELATIOlfIS 199 

felt, when he had known her only as the 
ward of the wealthy Cincinnati lawyer. 

Now that he knew her whole story, he 
was conscious that his admiration had 
deepened to reverent love. He knew every 
step of the ladder by which she had climbed. 
He had been in her early home, and seen the 
uncultured associations from which she had 
risen. He knew how those who should have 
been her best friends had cast her off in 
the hour of her need, and left her to fight 
the battle of life alone. He recognized the 
nobility of spirit that was willing to accept 
a servant’s place for the sake of the higher 
good that could be gained thereby. He 
smiled as he thought of the word-battles he 
had fought with Harvey for her sake, and 
felt a thrill of pardonable pride in discov- 
ering that his estimate of her character had 
been true, and that Harvey had misjudged 
her. By indomitable energy and persever- 
ance, by seizing every opportunity, how- 
ever small, by making the most of the 
chances that came to her, she had reached a 


200 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

point where his sisters were proud to claim 
her friendship, and eager to copy her ex- 
ample. 

As for himself, — Walter Brooks, the tal- 
ented and wealthy young lawyer, — he ac- 
knowledged that he should be glad to claim 
more than her friendship. He felt that her 
love would be the highest prize that earth 
could give him, and to claim her as his wife 
would be immeasurable bliss. 

Now his chances for ever obtaining that 
happiness appeared very shadowy. From 
her manner that morning, he was sure that 
she still cared for Harvey. In spite of his 
faithlessness, she had remained true. He 
had cast her off that she might not hinder 
his progress upward; but she had climbed 
past him, and now — womanlike — was ready 
to reach down a hand to help him up to her 
level. 

Walter felt that, in loyalty to his friend, 
and because of his love for Margie, he must 
stand aside and throw no obstacle in the 
way of these two who had once been all the 


nmELATio:NS 201 

world to each other. He did not doubt that 
Harvey would turn from Alma to his early 
love. He was not so certain of what Margie 
would do. Down in the bottom of his heart 
he discovered a lurking hope that she would 
treat Harvey as he deserved. 

Then he turned from the contemplation 
of his own case to that of his favorite sister. 
He had watched the growing friendship be- 
tween Harvey and Alma with considerable 
satisfaction; for, notwithstanding the fact 
that Harvey was comparatively poor, Wal- 
ter knew that the young man was destined 
to make a success of his chosen profession. 
He was sure that Alma cared for Harvey. 
An hour previous, he would have smiled 
over the thought. Now, it caused him bit- 
ter pain. He longed to shield her from 
the grief that seemed so sure and immedi- 
ate, but could see no way in which he could 
spare her. 

Up in her quiet room, Margie sat and 
pondered over the sad news she had re- 
ceived. All her heart flowed out in sym- 


202 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

pathy to Harvey in his grief. She knew 
just how desolate he must feel, because of 
her own sad experience. She longed to see- 
him, yet she felt that she could not bear to 
meet him in Alma’s home. She feared that 
she should lose self-control again, and be- 
tray her long-cherished secret to the two 
girls who had unconsciously caused her so 
much sorrow. Long she pondered, seeking 
for some reasonable excuse to terminate her 
visit before the time for Harvey’s arrival. 

Then her thoughts turned to the scene in 
the music-room. How kind and tender 
Walter had been. Why had he looked at 
her so strangely when he discovered her 
identity? What had Harvey told him in 
regard to her? 

She remembered how he had clasped her 
hand, and how his voice had trembled when 
he said : Your wish is law to me, Margie.” 

Margie ! ” He had always said Miss 
Dean.” Could it be that he cared for her? 
Oh, surely not. He had known her such a 
little while. She was a silly, vain girl to 


REYELATIOl^S 


203 


think of such a thing. When would Har- 
vey come? How and where would they 
meet? Would he be the same dear, hand- 
some fellow whom she had worshiped all 
her life? Would he forget Alma and Bess, 
and care for her again? Would the long- 
lost happiness come back to her? He would 
live in Cincinnati. She should see him fre- 
quently. She should enjoy his companion- 
ship again. 

So she sat and dreamed, until suddenly 
she discovered that in her dreams Harvey 
was looking at her with Walter’s eyes, and 
speaking with Walter’s voice. She laughed 
a little nervously. 

My brain appears to be somewhat 
mixed,” she said to herself. Then she went 
and bathed away the traces of tears, 
changed her morning dress for her most be- 
coming dinner toilet, and went downstairs. 

Two days later she managed to bring her 
visit to a close without exciting the wonder 
of her hostesses, and gladly returned to her 
home. 


204 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

How soon do you think Harvey will be 
here? ” Alma asked Walter, the morning 
after Margie had left. I do wish he had 
come while Margie was here. I wanted 
them to meet one another.” 

“ He will hardly come before next week,” 
Walter replied. “ As for having him meet 
Margie — I may as well tell you that she 
went home simply to avoid him.” Alma 
stared at him in amazement. 

Come into the library, where we will 
not be interrupted. Now that Margie is 
gone, I feel free to tell you her story — in- 
deed I believe she would wish me to 
do so.” 

Alma, tell me truly, do you care very 
much for Harvey? Would it hurt you if I 
should tell you that you must put him out 
of your thoughts and out of your heart as 
much as possible? ” 

He had put his arm around her, and 
drawn her down on the sofa in the library. 
His eyes searched her face anxiously as he 
spoke, and his heart ached to see how white 


REVELATIONS 206 

her face grew at his words, and how the 
shadow crept into her eyes. 

Do I care for him? I don’t know — yes, 
I do, that is not true. I think he is the 
handsomest, noblest man I ever met. I like 
him better than anyone else I know. Is 
that love?” 

“ It is the beginning of it most certainly. 
Believe me, dear little sister, that I grieve 
to tell you anything that will rob you of any 
happiness; but remember, dear, that while 
it hurts you, it hurts me just as severely.” 

Alma scarcely took her eyes from his face 
while he went back to the beginning, and 
told her the whole story of Maggie Dean’s 
life. He did not spare Harvey in the least. 
He showed up his selfishness, his unkind- 
ness, his faithlessness in their true light. 
The color rose to Alma’s face, and the in- 
dignant fiash to her eyes, as she listened. 
She thought only of the grief, the loneliness, 
the noble struggles of her idolized friend. 
She was carried away from herself by Wal- 
ter’s eloquent recital of Margie’s efforts, her 


206 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

wrongs, her triumph. It was not until the 
story reached its conclusion that she 
thought of its effect upon herself. 

“ And now, dear,’’ Walter said, do you 
not see that Margie’s heart still clings to 
her love, in spite of all that she has suf- 
fered? Do you not realize that the meeting 
of these two means that you must give up 
all thoughts of Harvey’s love, and must tear 
from your heart the beginnings of your love 
for him ? ” 

Oh, Walter ! ” she cried, burying her 
face on his shoulder, and bursting into 
tears, I despise him for the way he has 
treated Margie, and yet — and yet — I be- 
lieve I do love him after all ! ” 

And I love Margie,” he whispered. Is 
it any comfort to you to know that you have 
a comrade in your pain?” 

You love Margie!” Alma cried, sur- 
prised out of her weeping. Oh, you dear 
boy. But how could you help it? Oh, Wal- 
ter, I see what it means to us both. You 
and I must stand aside that their happiness 


BEYELATWNS 


207 


may not be hindered. He is not good 
enough for her after the way he has acted 
toward her ; he does not deserve her love. I 
despise him for his selfishness and his un- 
kindness to her, and — ^yet, oh, Walter, I 
can^t help it ! I love him in spite of it all ! ’’ 


CHAPTER XV 


RETRIBUTION 

At Alma’s request, Walter decided to 
shorten his stay at home, and wrote to Har- 
vey that he would meet him in Cincinnati. 
In this way Alma was spared the pain of 
meeting him. She wanted time to think 
over this trial that had come to her, and to 
allow her loyalty to Margie to obtain a firm 
rooting, before Harvey’s presence should 
snatch it away. 

Bess wondered much at her sister’s grave 
face and abstracted manner. 

I did not know that you were so fond of 
Walter as to take his absence so hard. Just 
wait till the Lorings come. You will 
soon get over your mopes then,” Bess said ; 
and dismissed the subject entirely from her 
attention. 

Alma did the wise thing with herself. 

She fixed her thoughts entirely on Margie’s 
208 


RETRIBUTION 


209 


story and Margie herself. In those days 
she seemed to live in her friend’s body, and 
feel the emotions of Margie’s soul. Her 
own self was obliterated. The more she 
pondered the more she admired her friend. 
With womanly instinct, she divined why 
Margie had kept silence in regard to her 
friendship with Harvey. 

She gave him up to Bess, for Ms sake. 
Then when she thought I cared for him, she 
gave him up for my sake. Shall I be less 
noble than she? 

How can she forgive him for his un- 
kindness to her? Will she forgive him? 
Ought I to forgive him? He is not worthy 
of my friendship, for he has slighted my 
friend. He is not worthy of her. He has 
been faithless to her. Would he be true to 
me? Can I respect anyone who has proved 
himself so heartless, so selfish, so super- 
ficial in his character? No, no! Harvey 
St. Clair, I loved the man I thought you 
were — not the man you have proved your- 
self to be.” 


210 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

Meanwhile, Harvey and Walter had 
opened their office and settled down, ready 
for work. Not much had yet come to 

them, so they found themselves with plenty 
of leisure time on their hands. 

Directly across the street from their 
office was a massive stone block, in which 
the noted Lawyer Wallace had his office. 
From their windows the young men could 
look across and note the luxurious office- 
furnishings, and watch the amount of busi- 
ness daily transacted. 

I wouldn’t mind being in that old fel- 
low’s shoes for a' while,” remarked Harvey 
one afternoon. Everything appears to go 
his way. I wonder whether we shall ever 
be so fortunate as he.” 

Walter sat in grim silence for a few mo- 
ments. Then he said, with strange hesi- 
tancy : 

You envy him his office, his business, 
his wealth; but wait till you see his ward. 
Your envy will swallow you up entirely 

then. ” 


RETRIBUTION 211 

“Why? Is she so remarkably hand- 
some? ’’ 

“ No. You cannot apply that adjective 
to her. She is bright, accomplished, fas- 
cinating, and wealthy. She is by all odds 
the finest girl I ever met. She is one of a 
thousand.” 

“ What extravagant praise, from so cal- 
lous a critic as Walter Brooks! Where and 
when did you meet her? Is it possible that 
Cupid’s wayward arrow has pierced you? 
Since you know her, perhaps I shall be so 
fortunate as to meet her some time. Tell 
me about her, old boy.” 

“ You have already heard Alma rave 
over her friend Margie, so you need no 
farther description. I have only to add 
that she visited at our home this summer, 
and I do not consider Alma’s eulogies over- 
drawn. But see. ^ Speak of angels, and you 
hear the rustle of their wings.’ Here are 
Mrs. Wallace and Miss Margie this mo- 
ment.” 

Harvey went to the window, and gazed at 


212 THE GIRL WnO KEPT UP 

the occupants of the handsome carriage that 
stopped directly opposite him. Mrs. Wal- 
lace alighted and went up to her husband’s 
office; but Margie retained her seat in the 
carriage, so that Harvey had a fine oppor- 
tunity for observing her. 

I thought you said she was not hand- 
some! ” he cried. I think she is extremely 
beautiful. How perfectly she is dressed. 
No wonder your sister raves over her. 
Why, where are you going, Walt? ” 

I want to speak with her for a moment,” 
returned Walter hastily, as he seized his 
hat and hurried down the stairs. 

Harvey watched him cross the street, and 
saw the bright smile and ready handclasp 
which the girl in the carriage bestowed 
upon his friend. 

Some people are born lucky,” he mut- 
tered, comparing his own advantages with 
Walter’s. I’d give my head to have such 
a girl as that, show me the favor she is be- 
stowing on him. I wonder what subject 
engTosses them. Their friendship seems to 


RETRIBUTION 


213 


have been very rapid, for it appears to rest 
upon a pretty solid foundation. Can it be 
possible that Walter is going to desert me 
already? Well, 1^11 just take Alma, and so 
even things up.” 

Presently the carriage rolled away, and 
Walter came slowly across the street and 
up the stairs. 

Well, old fellow, you act as if she had 
not been very cordial to you, after all. 
Didn^t you get your invitation to call? Con- 
fess, now. Was not that what took you 
across the street in such a hurry? Sit down 
and tell me all about it,” Harvey said jest- 
ingly. Walter sat down slowly, and seemed 
loath to begin. He gazed out of the window 
in an absent way, and his thoughts seemed 
far from his friend’s jesting remarks. 

It is a long story, but I have no doubt 
it would interest you. This girl is known 
as the ward of Mr. Wallace, but she is not 
such in reality. She is a girl of indomi- 
table energy, perseverance, and spirit. Her 
one desire in early life was to acquire an 


214 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

education. She was a poor girl, with no 
advantages whatever, and fate and. fortune 
seemed against her. She had no encourage- 
ment to go forward in the path which she 
chose for herself. Girls with less spirit 
would have settled down in hopeless de- 
spair ; but she was made of better stuff than 
that. She eagerly used what few chances 
she had, and kept watching for others to 
open out beyond them. When but a young 
girl, she was left an orphan, with her own 
way to make in the world. What few friends 
she had cast her off in her time of need. 
By a good providence she was recom- 
mended to Mrs. Wallace, who sent for her 
to come and work for her. She proved so 
faithful and efficient in her work that the 
favor of her employers was soon won, and 
she was gradually advanced from the posi- 
tion she first held to be secretary and com- 
panion to Mrs. Wallace. At school her 
energy and industry soon gained for her the 
first rank in her classes; and when — at the 
close of her high-school course — she won a 


RETRIBUTION^ 


215 


valuable prize, Mr. Wallace was so pleased ^ 
and proud of her that he paid all her ex- 
penses for a college course. She graduated 
with a degree, and by a post-graduate 
course has won another. She possesses a 
marvelously rich, sweet voice, and has been 
cultivating it as rapidly as possible. Per- 
sonally, she is charming. She is easy and 
graceful in manner, and no one would ever 
guess that she had once been a servant girl. 
She is a brilliant conversationalist ’’ 

Hold on. Wait till I get my breath, be- 
fore you recount any more of the extraordi- 
nary attainments of this girl. No wonder 
she has set your brain in a whirl. No won- 
der Alma raves about her. There is one 
thing that you have not explained. You 
said she is wealthy. Where does that part 
come in your fairy story?” 

She had a legacy of |250. Mr. Wallace 
invested this for her in some one of those 
fabulous Western ^ booms,’ and it has in- 
creased to many thousand dollars.” 

Harvey sat in silence for several minutes. 


21^6 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

a veritable fairy story,” he said at 

.last. 

No,” Walter replied. Omitting the 
monetary part of it, it is only the story of 
what energy, perseverance, faithfulness, 
and sweetness will accomplish. These 
->^raits in her character opened the gates of 
society, wisdom, and happiness for this girl, 
and raised her from the position of a poor 
servant to that of one of the most admired 
young ladies of the city. She stooped to a 
low position to conquer a higher. She won 
confidence, and love, and the help of others 
by her faithfulness ‘ in that which is least,’ 
and by her sunny disposition. Would you 
think that anyone could ever have been 
ashamed of her at any point in her career? ” 
Indeed not,” exclaimed Harvey ardent- 
ly. I would take off my hat to such a 
girl, any day and in any place.” 

“ And yet,” Walter said, “ there was a 
man who was ashamed of her. He won her 
heart, yet he considered her beneath him, a 
drag and a disgrace. She idolized him. 


RETRIBUTION 


217 


She fought her way upward for his sake. 
She did all things to keep his regard ; but he 
cast her off for another less worthy than 
she, and to-day he mourns his incomparable 
loss. What do you think of such a man as 
that? 

With singular obtuseness, Harvey failed 
to apply the story to himself. So utterly 
had Alma absorbed his thoughts, that he 
had forgotten Maggie Dean. 

‘^What do I think of him? He is not 
worthy of the name of man. He is a brute 
— a disgrace to humanity. He was un- 
worthy of her smallest favor. He ought to 
be ashamed. He ought to suffer. I am 
glad she escaped from his lowering influ- 
ence.’^ 

He had grown very enthusiastic over the 
story of the handsome and stylish young 
lady whom he had just seen. He was pac- 
ing the floor now, as he always did when ex- 
cited over any subject. 

Walter watched him with scornful eyes 
and a sarcastic smile. The task he had set 


218 TEE aiRL WHO KEPT UP 

himself — with Margie’s consent — was a bit- 
ter one. It required all his strength of 
will, all his Christianity, all his love for 
Margie, to make the sacrifice he was doing. 
If he took a grim pleasure in making the 
point of his story as keen as possible for 
Harvey, can he be blamed? It was the one 
poor comfort left him. 

“ When are you going to call on her, 
Walt? Won’t you beg her for permission 
to let me call with you some time? Above 
all things I would desire the honor of the 
friendship of such a girl.” 

“ Yet time was, when you considered this 
very girl a drag and a disgrace to you. 
She used to he known as Maggie Dean! ” 

All the repressed scorn and bitterness in 
Walter’s heart came out in his stinging 
tones. 

Harvey stared at him in blank amaze- 
ment, while his face grew white even to the 
lips. Then, with a groan, he sank into a 
chair, dropped his arms on the table and his 
head on his arms. 


RETRIBUTION 


219 


Walter said not a single word to lighten 
the blow; but presently got up, took his hat, 
and went away, leaving Harvey to battle 
alone with his grief, his shame, his stinging 
defeat. 

His unfaithfulness to truth, his desertion 
to loneliness, his selfishness to unselfish- 
ness, his coldness to love, his contemptible 
self compared to Maggie’s sterling worth, 
swept over him in crushing power, and 
plunged him into the blackness of despair. 

Alma was swept from his thoughts as a 
feather is carried by the wind. Compared 
with Margie she was no longer to be desired. 

In the hours that followed, Maggie^s 
wrongs were fully revenged. Walter had 
skillfully managed to heap the sorrow, the 
neglect, the pain, that had spread through 
years of her life, into one great cup; and, 
with remorse added, had pressed it all at 
once to Harvey’s lips. 


CHAPTEE XVI 


AN UNFORTUNATE PLEA 

The days that followed were filled with 
anguish for Harvey. He could not sleep. 
He could not eat. He neglected the office 
and spent hours tramping the streets in a 
restless effort to get away from himself. He 
shunned his friend. He could not bear to 
meet the glance of Walter’s eye. He felt 
as if all the world must know of his dis- 
graceful conduct. He was low in the dust 
of defeat, and the chariot- wheels of the con- 
queror pressed heavily. 

He fairly haunted the streets that were 
near Margie’s home. Sometimes he would 
catch glimpses of the girl at the windows 
or in the yard, and nearly every evening he 
could hear her splendid voice accompanied 
by the piano. At such times he would 
stand in the shadow of the trees and listen 

as long as he dared, then creep away with 
220 


AN UNFORTUNATE PLEA 221 

bowed head, thinking of how he might have 
been a welcome visitor in that handsome 
home, might have stood beside the lovely 
singer and known the song was for him. 
By his own foolish, selfish pride he had 
closed the doors against himself, was con- 
demned to be a stealthy loiterer outside the 
gates, and only the echo of the song was his. 

Several weeks passed in this way. Wal- 
ter watched Harvey closely, and began to 
hope that after all he would not try to patch 
up the broken friendship. During the 
whole of this time, through loyalty to Mar- 
gie, to Harvey, and to his own ideas of 
right, Walter stayed away from the Wal- 
lace home. He was beginning to feel that 
his self-imposed exile might soon be honor- 
ably ended, when one evening Harvey said 
suddenly : 

“ I can’t stand this any longer. I may 
as well go up there, and have done with it. 
She cannot more than refuse to see me. 
That will at least end this state of alter- 
nating hope and dejection.” 


222 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

He mentioned no names. It was un- 
necessary. 

Walter watched in silence while he made 
his toilet with exceeding care. As soon as 
he had fairly gone, Walter sank down into 
a chair, buried his face in his hands, and in 
his turn gave up to dejection. 

Margie was seated at her piano, but some- 
how she had no heart for music. She was 
touching the keys softly in minor chords, 
while her thoughts were in a certain down- 
town law-office. She was feeling not a lit- 
tle hurt by Walter Brooks’s long-continued 
delay in calling upon her. She had so 
much enjoyed their short friendship, and 
had believed that it had been quite as pleas- 
ant to him. She had hoped that when he 
came to the city, she might see him fre- 
quently. He had seemed so superior to or- 
dinary young men that the attentions she 
received from her other admirers filled her 
with impatience. 

On this evening in question, she was won- 
dering much about him. Mr. and Mrs. 


AN VNFORTVNATE PLEA 223 

Wallace were away from home for the even- 
ing, and she was feeling lonely. She had 
cherished a secret hope that perhaps he 
might call, and, almost unconsciously, had 
dressed herself with great care, in expecta- 
tion of seeing him. But the evening was 
passing, and she was beginning to lose 
heart, when the peal of the door-bell sent 
the blood to her cheeks. A moment later, 
the servant opened the parlor door and an- 
nounced Mr. St. Clair.” 

He had been entirely absent from her 
thoughts, so she was thoroughly surprised 
by his presence. 

Harvey ! ” she cried, springing from her 
seat, and advancing toward him with out- 
stretched hand. Her evident joy banished 
the last vestige of Harvey’s fear. 

Maggie ! ” he exclaimed passionately, 
clasping her hand in both of his. “After 
all these years the lost is found.” 

“ And the Prodigal has returned,” she 
added in a tone that he did not comprehend. 
He did not like the remark very well, nor 


224 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

enjoy the title which she had applied to him. 
To say the least, it was too suggestive of 
uncomfortable things. He ignored it by 
saying: 

How you have changed. I could not 
believe Walter when he pointed you out to 
me. The idea that I had found you again 
seemed too good to be true.” 

She drew her hand gently from him, and 
motioned him to a seat, while she took one 
not far from him. 

“ Why did you not bring Mr. Brooks with 
you? He has neglected me shamefully 
since he came to the city,” she said in easy, 
conventional tones. Her surprise was over 
now, and she was able to treat him as she 
would any of her ordinary callers. 

Her remark was as frost to the bud of 
hope that had sprung up in his breast. She 
had met his reference to their early friend- 
ship with an inquiry concerning another 
man. He ground his teeth with vexation, 
and wished Walter Brooks at the bottom of 
the Dead Sea. 


AN JjNFORTVNATE PLEA 225 

But he replied suavely: 

I cannot account for Walter’s strange 
moods. He has appeared extremely glum 
for some time past. No doubt business 
does not come in as rapidly as he had hoped. 
But even if he had been in the best of 
spirits, I would have preferred that he 
should not come with me to-night. It has 
been so long since we last met, and there is 
so much to talk over, that I wanted you all 
to myself.” 

He spoke with an assurance that he did 
not feel, and waited eagerly for her reply. 

I do not know that there is much to 
tell,” she said in a constrained voice. 

Mr. Brooks has no doubt told you my side 
of the story, and — through Alma — I have 
known your side all along.” 

He winced at this keen thrust. 

I ought, however, to offer you my con- 
gratulations over your completed course. 
Alma tells me that you came off with flying 
colors, and high honors. But it was quite 
what I expected of you. Indeed, I should 


226 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

have been surprised and disappointed if I 
had received a different report. And you 
have fairly begun the practice of law? I 
hope you will be quite as successful in that 
as you have been otherwise.’^ 

Harvey^s blood passed through several 
degrees of heat and cold during these re- 
marks. He wished that she would not 
refer to Alma so authoritatively. He won- 
dered whether she had ever seen any of his 
letters to Alma, and tried to recall just how 
much he had said to that young lady. He 
would have given a great deal to know ex- 
actly how much Margie knew of his warm 
friendship with Alma. It was an exceed- 
ingly unpleasant situation, and he was 
obliged to stumble along in the dark. 
She knew everything about him, he knew 
nothing of her. The vantage ground was 
all hers, and he was afraid to move for fear 
he would make a mistake. 

He did not like the broad hint that she 
knew all the story of his unlucky infatua- 
tion for Bess Brooks, and his subsequent 


AN UNFORTUNATE PLEA 227 

interest in her sister. Then, her words of 
congratulation and the acknowledgment 
of her faith in his abilities, came as balm 
to his spirit. Did not they show that after 
all she cared for him? If he could explain 
away his silence and neglect, might not 
their friendship be restored on the old 
basis? Hope whispered Yes,” so he took 
courage. 

^^Why did you not send me a word 
through Alma, so that I might have found 
you again? Did you not know that it 
would have been joy immeasurable to me? 
Oh, Maggie, why did you treat me so?” 
His tone of tender reproach disconcerted 
her. 

I thought that as you had not answered 
one letter, it was not worth while to send 
you another,” she said; and immediately 
wished that she could recall her words. 
She had given him the advantage. She had 
acknowledged the jealousy and the heart- 
longing which had been hers. 

He was quick to press his advantage. 


228 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

'' It was all a wretched mistake, Maggie/' 
he said in tenderest tones, as he drew his 
chair nearer to her, and gazed at her in the 
old, fond way. I was so very busy when 
your letter came that I laid it aside for a 
more leisure time. (He did not see fit to 
tell her that his main business was to dance 
attendance on Bess Brooks ; but she had al- 
ready divined it.) Then your father died, 
and you went away. I was wrongly in- 
formed about you. I was told that you 
^ had gone to work out.' I could not bear 
it. I thought you had given up all your 
high ideals, and stepped down to a lower 
plane of society. My whole spirit rebelled 
against it. I was grievously disappointed 
in you whom I had always revered. When 
I conquered this mistaken idea, you had 
utterly disappeared, and I could find no 
trace of you, although I tried. Only last 
summer, Walter and I went to see Mrs. Nel- 
son to strive to find some trace of you." 

Oh, I see ! " she interrupted with a 
merry little laugh. You told Alma about 


AN VNFORTVNATE PLEA 


229 


it, and that accounts for her writing to me 
to try to find a certain Maggie Nelson in 
whom she had become much interested. 
How very absurd ! ’’ and again her laughter 
pealed forth. 

Her amusement disconcerted Harvey, 
but he tried to lead her back to himself. 

“ Can you not see how I have been 
blinded, and my way hedged with thorns? 
Can you not spare me a little pity for all 
the years you have been lost to me? ’’ 

Her amusement was gone now, and her 
face very grave. 

‘‘ Your faith in me must have been very 
weak if the simple charge that I had gone 
to seek an honest living could destroy it. 
Was it ‘ a step downward ’ ? Is soot on the 
hands destructive of purity in the heart? 

♦ Cannot one perform menial labor, and yet 
be a Child of the King? Was I less worthy 
of your friendship when working for others, 
than I would have been when working in 
my stepmother^s kitchen? I do not under- 
stand. You might at least have given me a 


230 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

chance to explain the true state of the 
case.” 

This new phase of the question incensed 
her exceedingly. She had not dreamed him 
capable of such a low conception of what 
constituted tru^ nobility. She was sur- 
prised by his superficiality. It shattered 
the ideal that had dwelt in her heart 
and been called by his name. She felt the 
cold selfishness of his plea. It had better 
not have been made. She had overcome 
the pain of his turning from her through 
the fascinating influence of another girl; 
but this revelation of his doubt and cold 
self-interest hurt and repulsed her. She 
had not believed him capable of such base 
faithlessness. This was not the boy she 
had loved so ardently, for whose sake she 
had battled with adverse circumstances, 
through whose inspiring influence she had 
conquered. Harvey’s advantage was lost. 

I was an unmitigated fool,” he said bit- 
terly. Walter tried to make me see my 
mistake; but I had to cut my wisdom teeth 


AN UNFORTUNATE PLEA 231 

before I could appreciate how wrong I had 
been. Will you not believe me when I say 
that I have bitterly repented my error? 
Will you not give me a chance to prove the 
sincerity of my repentance? For the sake 
of the old, happy days, will you not give 
me a little place amid the multitude of your 
friends? Do not cast me off without mercy, 
even though I do not deserve it. May not a 
man’s ripened judgment atone for the 
errors of his youth? ” 

He was leaning very near her, and pain, 
and love, and repentance were pleading in 
his eyes, his voice, his tones. Her generous 
heart was touched. 

The best we can do will be to try to 
forget it all and begin over ; and let us hope 
our future friendship will have fewer un- 
pleasantnesses. Now tell me of Sharon, 
and the people there. I have not heard 
from there for three years.” 

In this way she put him from her. She 
was eager in her questions in regard to the 
old home, interested in all he had to tell 


232 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT VP 

her, sympathetic for him in the loss of his 
parents. She talked her brightest, she 
sang her sweetest. She bade him good- 
night with a friendly smile, an invitation to 
call again, and a gentle hint to bring Walter 
with him some time. Then the door closed 
behind him and he went away. 

She listened to the sound of his quick, 
receding footsteps, and wondered that it 
no longer stirred her as it had done in the 
old days^ — as she had expected it would do 
in the new. She was conscious of a chill in 
her heart, a depression in her spirits. 

Why had he come? Was it her wealth, 
her social standing, her accomplishments, 
that had caused him to turn so suddenly 
from Alma? Had he really cared for her 
all these years? When had he cut his 
wisdom teeth ” — before Walter had told him 
her story, or afterwards? Since he had 
been faithless once, could she trust him 
again? 

She was conscious of a sense of sudden 
loss. Her ideal was gone. Her heart had 


A-N VNFORTVNATE PLEA 233 

not even a shadow to love. She under- 
stood now why he had cast her off. She 
was a part of his old life, an impediment 
to his onward course, a disgrace to 
him socially. He had felt himself above 
the poor kitchen-girl,’’ and had left her 
behind him, with the rest of the undesirable 
things. Now that he had discovered that 
she also had advanced, he was willing to 
take her up again. Should she submit to 
such condescension? Her spirit revolted 
against it. 

Walter tried to make me see my mis- 
take.” “ Walter and I went to see Mrs. 
Nelson to try to find some trace of you.” 
The words came back to her with unmis- 
takable meaning. Walter had believed in 
her, even though he had never seen her. He 
had judged her actions and motives cor- 
rectly. He had championed her cause 
when all others had deserted her. Her 
heart beat quickly at the thought. She 
knew now why he had looked at her, had 
spoken to her, as he did when she told him 


234 THE GIRL WHO KEPT VP 

her story in the music-room. He had been 
glad that he had found her. She leaned 
back in her chair with a happy smile. The 
warm blood coursed through every vein. 
There was one man on earth who was not 
selfish and superficial. She could pin her 
faith to his truth. Then she forget Harvey, 
and dreamed over her happy summer at the 
Brooks home, until the entrance of Mr. and 
Mrs. Wallace recalled her to herself. 


CHAPTER XVII 


NOT PARALLELS^ BUT DIVERGENTS 

When Harvey arrived at Ms rooms that 
night, he found Walter sitting reading. 

Well, old fellow, still up? he ex- 
claimed, It is so late I did not suppose 
I would find you awake.” 

Walter laid down his book, and looked 
searchingly at his friend. 

You appear to have had a successful 
call, if one may judge by your face and man- 
ner. Was Miss Dean surprised to see 
you? ” 

YeSj indeed. Isn’t she glorious, 
though? I could hardly believe my eyes as 
I sat and looked at her. I could not realize 
that Maggie Dean had blossomed out into 
such a queenly woman.” 

‘‘ And how did you manage to explain 
away your years of silence and neglect? ” 

Harvey flushed. 


235 


236 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

I did not try to explain them away. I 
^ owned up ’ to every bit of it like a man, 
and threw myself on her mercy. I told her 
that I had been an unmitigated fool. That 
you had tried to convince me that I was 
one, but I had to cut my wisdom teeth be- 
fore I could see it ; that when I had dis- 
covered my mistake, I had tried to find her, 
but had failed.’’ Harvey paused. 

And what did she say to that? ” 

She agreed to forget it all, and begin 
over.” Harvey’s tones were more jubilant 
than his feelings. He would not acknowl- 
edge to his friend the doubt and uncer- 
tainty which he felt. Margie had not said 
she would forget and begin over.” Her 
tones had been very cool and reserved when 
she said, The best we can do will be to 
try to forget it all, and begin over”; and 
there was a strongly implied hint that the 
forgetting part of the arrangement might 
not thrive very well. Then she had put 
aside all other personalities so positively, 
and treated Harvey so entirely as she would 


NOT PARALLELS, BUT DIVEROENTS 237 

any friend from Sharon, that he felt much 
farther removed from her when he left the 
house than he had done when he entered it. 

Walter had been so bitter in his denun- 
ciations of Harvey’s actions, and so sting- 
ing in his judgments, that Harvey was un- 
willing to let him know that he had suffered 
even the shadow of a defeat. Had he not 
been so self-absorbed, he would have dis- 
covered that Walter also cared for the girl, 
and therein he would have found his re- 
venge. As it was, he paid no more heed to 
his room-mate, but proceeded to put away 
his best hat, gloves, and necktie, all the 
while humming the refrain of one of the 
songs which Margie had sung for him. 
Walter went to bed, but not to sleep. His 
heart was heavy, for he felt that his last 
hope had vanished. He was sensible of a 
vague feeling of disappointment in Margie. 
He had not thought her capable of over- 
looking such lack of principle as Harvey 
had shown in his treatment of her. He be^ 
lieved her generous and kind, but he was 


238 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

hardly prepared to see her capitulate with- 
out more honorable terms of surrender. 

Then he thought of Alma; but she proved 
quite as unhappy a subject for reflection as 
Margie. He could imagine the trial it 
would be to her, when she learned of Mar- 
gie^s decision. By his own pain and rebel- 
lion of spirit, he measured and sympathized 
with hers. Life looked very blank to him. 
He wished himself out of the partnership so 
lately formed, and away from the associa- 
tions that would necessarily surround him. 
How could he bear to look on, and see Har- 
vey carry away the prize he coveted? How 
could he bear to hear him talk of her in that 
proprietary way every hour in the day and 
every day in the week? He did not want 
to be obliged to listen to accounts of Har- 
vey’s visits to her, and reports of what he 
said and she said, and how she looked and 
what she sang. Perhaps she would come 
to the office sometimes. After she and Har- 
vey were married she would be sure to 
come frequently. How could he stand it? 


IflOT PARALLELS, BUT DIYEBGENTS 239 

Altogether, it was a very unhappy night, 
and was but the precursor of many such 
days and nights. 

He resolved to stay away from the Wal- 
lace home as much as possible. A call 
now and then was sufficient to satisfy the 
demands of etiquette, and he took pains to 
make every such call in Harvey’s company. 

Margie’s manner toward him at first was 
exceedingly kind. She valued his friend- 
ship. She had enjoyed his companionship 
in his home, and was glad to have it con- 
tinued in her own home. But she found a 
change in him that puzzled and annoyed 
her. His manner was courteous and con- 
ventional in the extreme. He was chill- 
ingly reserved and impersonal in his con- 
versation and attentions. Margie was 
sorely wounded by it. 

<< Why does he treat me so? ” she asked 
herself. “ He used to be so kind — I almost 
thought — he cared for me — once. Can it 
be — that he thinks I was beginning — to — to 
— care too much for him, and wishes to 


240 the girl who kept up 

show me my mistake? ” Her face grew 
crimson at the thought. Oh, surely not^ — 
surely not ! What did I say or do to make 
him think so? What must he think of me? 
How can I look him in the face? 

And thereupon she proceeded to make 
herself as miserable as possible. 

With such feelings on her side, and such 
principles on Walter^s, the distance between 
them rapidly grew, and Harvey’s prospects 
on the contrary grew brighter. To hide 
and forget her pain at Walter’s desertion, 
Margie turned more and more to Harvey, 
and that young man grew more and more 
assured. He began to lay plans for the fu- 
ture, and rehearsed them to Walter until 
that gentleman gave him flatly to under- 
stand that he was more interested in his 
law cases than in his partner’s love affairs, 
which concerned only the individual and 
not the Arm. 

Harvey found innumerable excuses for 
calls at the Wallace home. Now it was a 
new book; now an especial magazine arti- 


IfOT PARALLELS, BUT DIVERGENT8 241 

cle ; sometimes a scientific question, or a bit 
of advice he wanted. There were concerts 
and lectures that gave opportunity for de- 
lightful little walks with her. He exerted 
himself to the utmost. He made the most 
of his talents and acquirements. He stud- 
ied her preferences as he had known them 
in the old days, and sought to make him- 
self familiar with those that she held in the 
present times. All that was best in himself 
was carefully brought to the front; all that 
he dreamed possible of offense was hidden 
in the background. And so, through the 
days and weeks of autumn, his suit pro- 
gressed and prospered. 

One evening he called with a book for 
her. 

Here is a book that I have enjoyed very 
much,^’ he said. “ It coincides very 
strongly with my views of life as I have 
found it. The book is called ‘ Dreams,’ but 
I have found it filled with what I call 
sound, good common sense — which is hard- 
ly the stuff of which dreams are made. I 


242 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

wish you would read it, and give me your 
candid opinion of it.’’ 

Indeed, I shall be glad to do so,” Mar- 
gie replied. “ This is by an author of 
whom I have heard much, and I have de- 
sired to read some of her writings. I have 
read that ^ the way to judge a woman is by 
the story that she tells ’ ; and so I will judge 
this one. I promise you my unvarnished 
opinion.” 

A week later Harvey reminded her of her 
promise, and asked her whether she had 
read the book in question. 

Yes,” she answered. “ It is really 
quite a short book, and I have read parts 
of it several times.” She stopped there, 
and he said : 

“ Is that all you have to say? Surely 
you could not help agreeing with the 
VTiter. Her ideas are so forcible and so 
clear.” 

Yes, that is true,” Margie replied 
thoughtfully. 

‘^Ah! I knew you would agree with 


'NOT PARALLELS, BUT DIYERGENTS 243 

me/’ he cried exultantly. Our minds 
were always parallels.” 

“ Wait,” she said. “ I have not finished. 
I was only hesitating for words in which to 
express my opinions most exactly.” She 
went on slowly, and with a far-away ex- 
pression which showed how carefully she 
was considering the question in hand. 

The book is a true picture of what life, 
death, and eternity are to those who have 
not belief in a personal, redeeming Saviour. 
It is a melancholy confession of the un- 
satisfactoriness of a life without a lov- 
ing, tender, all-wise, all-powerful God 
in it. 

I am glad that I have read the book, be- 
cause it makes me feel so much more 
strongly the blessedness of ^ The life that is 
hid with Christ in God.’ I can go forward 
without fear, for a loving Saviour leads the 
way. I can bear toil, for the reward is cer- 
tain. Every loss and disappointment will 
sometime prove a gain; and the battle of 
life will end in the victory of heaven.” 


244 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

Harvey was disagreeably surprised by 
the turn her criticism had taken. 

I did not know you had become reli- 
gious/’ he said, with the least shade of 
scorn in his tones. 

The knowledge of a redeeming Christ 
is the best wisdom I received in my college 
course/’ she said earnestly. Is it possi- 
ble that you have missed the Great Foun- 
tain Head in your search after learning? ” 

The Christian religion is all very well 
for those who are willing to abide by the 
old superstitions, and pin their faith with- 
out question to a Bible filled with contra- 
dictions and errors. I am proud to say I 
have advanced beyond that,” he said a little 
aggressively. 

She did not appear as overwhelmed by 
his statement as he desired. Instead, she 
looked at him coolly and calmly. 

If you have advanced beyond Infinity, 
where are you? ” 

I believe in Practical Occultism.” 

And, pray, what is that? ” 


A or PARALLELS, BUT DIYERGENTS 245 

Its foundation lies in the principle, ^ I 
will be what I will to be/ Christianity is 
a groping of the soul after God. Our be- 
lief has risen above that. Growth is from 
within, Light is from within. The will 
is all-powerful. Man is no longer depend- 
ent on superstitions. He has outgrown 
them. He is all-sufficient unto himself.’^ 

As near as I can make out, then. Self 
is your God. What is the Will of which 
you make so much? 

That Will is divinity itself.’^ 

Then whence did it come? Divinity 
can only emanate from the Divine. I do 
not see that you have advanced very much. 
You cannot get along with nothing for a 
basis. There must be a beginning. You 
may call it what you please. I call it God.’’ 

Very well, then,” he said somewhat 
testily. Call it what you please. But 
the Will is the center and is all-sufficient 
unto itself. Does a man perceive anything 
grand and noble, at once, by the exercise 
of his Will, he can become the same. From 


246 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT VP 

his new heights he can behold still greater 
ones, and by making all his powers sub- 
servient to his Will, he can continue to as- 
cend. He needs no outside help. He is 
bound down by no creeds nor legends. He 
is sufficient to himself. It is glorious to 
look upon a man’s capabilities in this way. 
See how it ennobles him and his powers. 
See how it makes him rise above your super- 
stitious levels.” 

“And how do you increase your will- 
power? It must have food if it would 
grow. You cannot feed the spirit with 
physical food. Your will cannot grow by 
devouring itself. How does it then in- 
crease? ” 

“ By exercise. By development,” he said 
enthusiastically. “It grows just as the 
muscle in the athlete’s arm grows by exer- 
cising it.” 

“ But the athlete is wise enough to know 
that exercise alone will not increase the 
strength of his arm. He feeds muscle and 
bone with nourishing food, and this food is 


¥0r PARALLELS, BUT DIYERGENTS 247 

not obtained from within his system, but 
from an external source. So with your 
Will, as you call it. It will soon be in the 
condition of the snake, which — beginning 
by swallowing its tail — devoured itself all 
but the cavity in its mouth. If you admit 
food from without, then your will is not 
self-sufficient ; and there you are with noth- 
ing beneath you.’’ 

Harvey was decidedly nettled. He had 
intended to impress her with his superior 
range of vision, and convince her that he 
had risen above her. Instead of that, she 
appeared to look upon him with toleration, 
and to feel a sense of amusement at his posi- 
tion. 

“ It is hardly worth while that we should 
argue the question any farther,” he said. 

You do not appear able to understand my 
position.” 

Instead of being abashed, she smiled. 

Neither do I think you capable of un- 
derstanding mine.” 

“ And why not? ” he asked in amazement. 


248 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

“No one unlearned in the language of 
Heaven is capable of criticising the words 
of Heaven. One who has never studied 
Greek cannot complain of ^ errors ’ in Ho- 
mer. One who has not learned simple addi- 
tion cannot work out the Integral Calculus. 
How, then, can one who has no personal 
knowledge of Christianity pass judgment 
upon its vital points? 

“ You are not competent to judge what 
you do not understand. You cannot under- 
stand the Bible and God’s dealings without 
placing yourself under the teaching of the 
Heavenly Schoolmaster. Whenever you 
do so place yourself, the eyes of your under- 
standing are cleared, and there is no longer 
any desire for criticism. There is no error 
in God’s truth. The errors are all in men’s 
warped and distorted vision. A telescope 
with a flaw in its lens casts a blot in the 
vision it gives of the sun. Yet the sun rolls 
on its glorious way, unmarred by the 
flaw in the work of a human mechanic. 
We must look nearer home for the flaws 


NOT PARALLELS, BUT DIYERGENTS 249 

we think we see in God’s Bible and God’s 
dealings. 

This is a subject that is beyond both of 
us, Mr. St. Clair. It is infinite as Infinity. 
We can never clearly and fully understand 
it until we can look upon it from a Heav- 
enly standpoint. Shall we drop it for the 
present? ” 

Harvey was glad to assent. He saw 
that he had made a wrong move, and was 
anxious to correct his position. 

Margie was pleasant and entertaining for 
the rest of the evening; but Harvey could 
plainly see that a gulf had yawned between 
them. 

He went home so l)lue and cross that 
Walter easily divined that something had 
gone wrong with him. He made all sorts 
of guesses as to the cause, but in point of 
fact widely missed the truth of the position. 

As time passed on the breach widened, 
and at last, in desperation, Harvey deter- 
mined to put his fate to the test. What 
cared he for her religious opinions? He 


250 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

told himself that he could easily overlook 
them for the sake of the influence, the social 
position, the wealth that she would bring 
to him as his wife. So, at the flrst favor- 
able opportunity, the all-important ques- 
tion was asked. 

He pleaded their early companionship 
and love, their mutual ambitions and ef- 
forts. His loneliness, his need of her and 
her love formed a large share in this, the 
all-important plea ” of this young lawyer. 

Margie sat with her head on her hand, 
and considered earnestly. Harvey waited 
in silence and watched her keenly. As the 
moments passed, his hopes began to fall, so 
that he was hardly surprised when she an- 
swered : 

“ Our early friendship will ever be a 
pleasant memory. I am willing to confess 
that I loved you then. I almost worshiped 
you. Then came years when even the sem- 
blance of your friendship was withdrawn. 
In those years I learned that my idol was 
but common clay. 


IflOT PARALLELS, BUT DIVERQENTS 251 

Since you came back to renew our 
friendship, I have faithfully tried to forget 
that you deserted me in the hour of my sor- 
row and loneliness. 

“ But beyond and above this obstacle lies 
one that to me is unsurmountable. In our 
religious views we are utterly removed from 
one another. We could never live happily 
together with so serious a wall of division 
between us. It would not lessen, but would 
grow with the years. There would be no 
real affinity between us. The farther we 
went the more widely our hearts would di- 
verge. 

No, Harvey. I can never be your wife.’’ 

His first great case ” was lost. 


CHAPTER XVIII 


A FOREGONE CONCLUSION 

In the days that followed, Harvey was so 
irritable, so unapproachable, that Walter 
hardly knew what to think of him. He was 
moody, restless, and absent-minded, so that 
he was really incapable of attending to 
business. At length, one evening Walter 
said : 

“ What is the reason that you have quit 
going to see Miss Dean? Have you had an- 
other misunderstanding? ” 

Harvey muttered something under his 
breath, then answered: 

I may as well make full confession and 
be done with it. Everything is off between 
us. She refused me flatly and finally. 
There is no appeal in the Court of Love : so 
it will be a case of ^ solitary confinement at 
hard labor ’ for me for the rest of my days.’^ 

“ What was the cause of the trouble? ’’ 
252 


A FOREGONE CONCLUSION 253 

Walter’s tones were quiet, but his heart was 
beating a Jubilate. 

My everlasting foolishness, in the first 
place, and my everlasting smartness, in the 
second. In the first place I claimed too lit- 
tle ; in the second place I claimed too much. 
In the first place, I offended by my silence; 
in the second place, I transgressed by too 
free utterance. Fate has been against me 
all the way through. I wish I had stayed in 
Sharon, and remained the clod-hopper I was 
born to be.” 

No, no,” Walter interposed. While 
you are wishing, wish the right thing. You 
chose your way deliberately, and against 
earnest, faithful counsel. You froze her 
heart by your unkindness, and now com- 
plain of its coldness. You sowed the seeds 
of neglect, and must now reap a harvest of 
loneliness. You have what you chose. 
Your only rational wish must be that you 
had chosen differently.” 

That is true,” sighed Harvey. “ I sup- 
pose — according to your belief, then — that 


254 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

if a man chooses to serve the devil on earth, 
he has no right to complain if God gives 
him the privilege of living with the devil 
through eternity.’’ 

Yes. The way in which we exercise our 
power of choice makes joy or sorrow for us, 
both here and hereafter. 

Will you not believe, Harve, that I am 
really and truly sorry for you? From what 
you told me at college in regard to Miss 
Dean, I judged that she was a superior girl, 
and one whom anyone must respect, no 
matter what position in life she might oc- 
cupy. I believed that you were mistaken in 
your treatment of her, and you must admit 
that I tried in every way to convince you 
of that fact. When I came to know her, I 
discovered that your highest estimate had 
fallen short of the reality. Hard experi- 
ence has but added luster to the diamond of 
her character. You must not complain of 
poverty, when you have deliberately thrown 
away such a jewel.” 

Walter’s tones were earnest and sincere. 


A FOREGONE CONCLUSION 255 

Harvey felt the true friendship that his 
words expressed; but he discovered more 
than that. He had watched Walter^s face 
intently, and noticed the change in his ex- 
pression, the gleam in his eye, the uplifting 
of his whole being, during these few min- 
utes of conversation. Now he leaned to- 
ward him across the table, and exclaimed: 

Walter, you love her yourself. No, old 
fellow, don’t try to deny it. I see it in your 
eyes, your voice, your manner. You do not 
mean to be glad over my unhappiness, but 
you are. Do you think I do not appreciate 
your friendship now? You might have won 
her for yourself, and I been none the wiser ; 
but you respected my prior claim. You 
gave her up to me, and smoothed the way 
for my success. How much you have suf- 
fered I can appreciate, for it is my turn to 
suffer the same now. I am not so generous 
as you. I do not give her up to you willing- 
ly. I would win her if I could. But I will 
be as glad for you as I can ; and I am thank- 
ful to know how truly you are my friend. 


256 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

Here^s my hand on it, old boy, and may you 
have better success than has been granted 
me.’^ 

A few evenings later Walter arrayed 
himself with great care, and left his rooms. 
Harvey was supposedly studying the brief 
of a case that the firm had just taken up, 
but in reality was watching every move that 
his friend made. When Walter had left the 
room he cast aside the semblance of study, 
and — with a groan — buried his face in his 
hands. He knew without asking where 
Walter had gone. His solitary confine^ 
ment” had begun. 

Margie was lonely and dispirited that 
evening. The sense of loss was heavy upon 
her. She had cherished her idol so faith- 
fully and so long, that she could not but 
grieve over the pitiful fragments that were 
left her. It was more of a sorrow to find 
Harvey unworthy than to believe him for- 
getful. The last tie of her early home had 
snapped behind her. Her past was gone, 
and the future was empty. 


A FOREGONE CONCLUSION 257 

The door-bell rang, but she scarcely 
heard it. The maid came up to her room 
bringing Walter’s card, and immediately 
life took on a different hue. She did not 
stop to ask herself what his coming meant, 
nor why she was glad, but hastened down 
to see him. 

His face and manner were so different 
that she forgot the reserve and chill of the 
months that had passed since his coming to 
the city. The pleasant companionship of 
the summer was renewed, and the break 
ignored. 

When he held her hand closely at part- 
ing, he murmured : 

May I come again — soon?” 

Her eyes fell beneath his earnest gaze. 

Yes,” she answered. 

The question and the little monosyllable 
expressed volumes to them both. 

Alone with herself, she read the secret of 
his heart, and understood his long silence 
and reserve. She knew now why he had 
stayed away, and honored him the more be- 


258 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT VP 

cause he had proved himself honorable. She 
knew by experience the pain he had en- 
dured while he stood aside for her sake and 
Harvey’s; and the tears of sympathy she 
shed for him proved how truly she loved 
him. Her loneliness was gone forever. His 
eyes had expressed what his lips had kept 
silent ; and she knew that her empty future 
had been filled to overfiowing with joy. Her 
heart rested upon its happiness. Her whole 
World was filled with a perfect peace. The 
fragments of her shattered idol had van- 
ished into nothingness. Maggie ” Dean, 
with all her old associations, ambitions, 
and motives, was but a memory. Happy 
Margie ! 

As weeks and months passed, Harvey’s 
buoyant spirit reasserted itself. He found 
himself dwelling more and more on 
thoughts of Alma’s bright face and merry 
speeches. More and more he condemned 
himself for the hasty manner in which he 
had thrown her off, and studied how he 
might retrieve for himself the place in her 


A FOREGONE CONCLUSION 259 

favor which he felt certain he had lost. 
Surely she would understand that he had 
felt himself bound to Margie by all the ties 
of youthful promises. He told himself that 
he had only done the honorable thing by re- 
turning to his first allegiance as soon as he 
had discovered Maggie Dean. He made 
much of his honor w^hen considering the 
question with himself, till as last he really 
began to believe that his conduct had been 
“ quite exemplary.’’ He could make a very 
pretty, touching story out of his self-deny- 
ing silence, and his pain and grief over the 
part he had been obliged to play toward her. 
It would not be necessary to speak of the 
many attractions Margie’s accomplish- 
ments, position, friends, and wealth had ex- 
erted in causing him to endure his great act 
of self-sacrifice. 

While he felt sure that he could rely on 
Walter’s non-interference, nevertheless he 
wished he knew just how much Walter had 
written to Alma at the time. It would 
make his task of reconciliation much easier. 


260 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

These thoughts took up most of his leisure 
hours for weeks. The long evenings that 
Walter spent at the home of his fiancee gave 
Harvey much opportunity for such plan- 
ning. 

Early in May Walter invited him to run 
down with him to the Kentucky home for a 
week’s vacation, and he gladly accepted. 

Margie was already there, and formed 
the chief magnet that drew Walter south- 
ward. Several other young people were 
there on a visit, and the old mansion was 
filled with true Kentucky hospitality and 
good cheer. Harvey exerted himself to ap- 
pear at his best, and made himself the life 
of the company. 

He found Alma inclined to be reserved, 
at first; but she soon threw ofi her chilling 
dignity. 

Margie was friendly, and easy in her 
treatment of him. No one would have 
imagined that he was a rejected lover. She 
spoke of him to the others as a schoolmate 
of her early days, and treated him much as 


A FOREGONE CONCLUSION 261 

she would a brother. Her conduct had no 
little to do with Alma’s change of attitude. 
So Harvey plucked up heart, and took 
courage. 

The evening before the day set for his 
return to the city, he found his desired op- 
portunity. It was a charming, moonlit 
evening, and some of the party proposed a 
general stroll along the broad, quiet ave- 
nue. The proposition met with unanimous 
approval, and Harvey adroitly managed to 
reach Alma’s side before any of the other 
young gentlemen could claim her company. 
At first, the party kept closely together, and 
conversation was general; but soon — as is 
always the case under similar circum- 
stances — the interest narrowed down to 
pairs, and the couples became so absorbed 
in one another as to forget to notice 
where the rest were, and gradually drifted 
apart. 

Conversation flagged between Harvey 
and Alma. By some subtle magnetism she 
was conscious of what his thoughts were. 


262 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

and was considering what she should say to 
him. 

At length he said: 

You do not know how much I regret 
having to go back to the city to-morrow. 
The office will seem insufferably dull after 
this week of paradise. If I thought that I 
would leave as much regret behind me as I 
will take with me, the return would not be 
so hard. May I hope, Alma, that I will be 
remembered when I am gone? 

His tone was unmistakable, but she 
would not take his words as he intended. 

You need not fear,’’ she replied. You 
have added so much to the general enjoy- 
ment that I am sure that every member of 
the company will miss you. We shall cer- 
tainly remember you, and regret the neces- 
sity that takes you back to the city.” 

It was not of ^ every member of the com- 
pany ’ that I was thinking when I spoke, 
and it is not merely remembrance that I 
desire to feel is mine. Alma, dearest, do 
you not understand? When I go back to 


A FOREGONE CONCLUSION 263 

the city, my heart will remain behind, in 
your keeping. Can you not give me an 
equal return? 

Perhaps I ought to explain the months 
of silence that fell between us since I was 
last here; but surely you understand. 

I have loved you from the time you 

came to W , to commencement. I only 

waited until my business position was such 
as to warrant my addressing you. 

Then fate threw Miss Dean in my path- 
way. Years ago, we were boy and girl 
lovers. Before I came out into the world 
I deemed her the embodiment of every 
womanly grace, and I pledged myself to 
her. When I saw you I discovered my mis- 
take, and was thankful that fate had inter- 
posed and that I had lost all trace of her. 
I felt that I was free, and therefore might 
care for you all I chose. 

I was astonished beyond measure when 
Walter pointed out your friend as my early 
love, and told me her strange story. My 
only honorable course then was to give up 


264 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

my thoughts of you, and return to my 
promised allegiance with her. I had begun 
to hope that you cared for me. I felt that 
to explain my feelings to you would only in- 
crease the unhappiness of us both, and that 
while silence was bitter, still it would be the 
kindest course. 

I lost no time in going back to Maggie, 
and faithfully strove to renew the old ties ; 
but time had drifted us apart. While we 
shall always be the best of friends, we can 
never become lovers. Perhaps if you and 
Walter had not intervened, we might in 
time have been drawn together again. As it 
is, old ties can never be renewed between us. 

So, Alma, now that I am honorably 
free, I beg you for the confirmation of my 
long-cherished hope. Will you not tell me 
that I have not loved in vain? That some 
day I may claim you for my wife? ’’ 

His voice was low and pleading. He 
looked very handsome in the moonlight, 
and Alma’s heart was strangely stirred. 
She could not help thinking how happy his 


A FOREGONE CONCLUSION 265 

words would have made her if they had 
been spoken a year previous. During the 
brief moments of his address, the pain, in- 
dignation, and wounded pride of the year 
passed in rapid review. She had felt much, 
and learned much. She was not the same 
girl now that she was then; hence her an- 
swer could not fail to be different : 

Will you not believe me when I say that 
I sincerely appreciate the honor you have 
shown me in speaking to me as you have? I 
am truly sorry that I cannot answer you as 
you desire. I hope always to be your 
friend; but beyond that I cannot go. Our 
friendship has been very pleasant, but it 
can only be friendship. I can never be your 
wife.’^ 

Do not say ^ never,^ Alma. Give me a 
chance to win your love. I will wait very 
patiently, only do not make your answer 
irrevocable. Is there anything in particu- 
lar that I could remedy, that might make 
your answer different? What is it that 
stands between us?” 


266 TEE GIRL ^¥E0 KEPT UP 

Alma hesitated; then said slowly: 

Perhaps it is but right that I should tell 
you. You are aware that from the very 
first of my acquaintance with Margie, I 
have almost idolized her. When I learned 
through Walter of your treatment of her, 
my indignation knew no bounds. Many 
things that she had previously said and 
done were explained, and I saw that she 
had suffered much before her love for you 
was destroyed. I was wounded through 
the wounds you infiicted upon my favorite 
friend. 

“ But over and beyond all this, there is 
another reason which should be given first 
rank, since it is first in my estimation. 

In one of our first conversations, you 
may remember that we touched upon re- 
ligious themes. I was pained then to find 
that our feelings were far from alike. The 
more I thought of it, the more I was puz- 
zled by your half-expressed views ; so I went 
to Walter for an explanation, and he in- 
formed me in regard to your religious belief 


A FOREGONE CONCLUSION 207 

— or rather, unbelief. This is a difference 
that would make! an impassable gulf be- 
tween us. On this question I must stand 
side by side with the man I marry. Do you 
not see that it is impossible for me to re- 
turn you any other answer? ” 

In answer to your first charge, I can 
but humbly and penitently acknowledge 
its truth. I can only plead the ignorance of 
immature youth. My conduct was without 
other excuse, and I do not attempt to pal- 
liate it. But for the last, oh, Alma, if I 
should give up my way of thinking, and be- 
lieve with you, could I not hope for a dif- 
ferent answer? ” 

A change of position for my sake would 
be to place me instead of God, and would 
be as bad as paganism. Belief cannot be 
forced, and profession without belief is a 
lie. 

I should be glad indeed to see you on 
the only right side to this important ques- 
tion, but I do not wish to see you come over 
to it from such unworthy motives as you 


268 THE GIRL WHO KEPT VP 

have proposed. It is a question in which a 
third party has no right. It lies entirely 
between God and yourself. I would not be 
the means of having you go to God with a 
lie upon your lips. No, Mr. St. Clair, my 
answer is irrevocable.” 

The rest of the walk was passed in pain- 
ful silence. When they reached the door 
of her home, Alma silently offered him her 
hand. He almost crushed it in his grasp. 
Then she glided away, up the stairs; and 
he turned back into the night. 

In the last days of June the marriage 
of Walter Brooks and Margie Dean took 
place. The great city church was a bower 
of bloom, and was crowded with the friends 
and well-wishers of the happy pair. 

As business partner of the groom, and 
especial friend of the bride, Harvey St. 
Clair occupied a place among the most fa- 
vored of the guests. 

In spite of his professions of love to 
Alma, his heart still clung to its first love, 
and every word of the marriage ceremony 


A FOREGONE CONCLUSION 


269 


carried a sting to his soul. He was glad 
when it was over. He went through the 
painful round of the reception at Mr. Wal- 
lace’s, and spoke words of congratulation 
that almost died upon his lips. 

When it was all over, and the newly wed- 
ded pair had departed on their bridal tour, 
he went back alone to his dreary office. 


CHAPTER XIX 


READJUSTMENTS 

At some time in every life there comes 
a moment when the earth seems to have 
slipped from beneath the feet; when past 
and future are blotted out, and the present 
is but a vague unrest. When memory has 
become misery, and hope has changed to 
heaviness, the heart dwells in the depths of 
despair, and mind and will lie helpless in 
the dust of defeat. 

Such a time had come in its fullness to 
Harvey St. Clair. During the weeks while 
Walter and Margie were absent on their 
wedding tour, Harvey gave himself up to 
the bitterness of retrospection. There was 
little comfort to be found in such a course. 
There was little in his past life of which he 
might be proud. As he went relentlessly 
over the years, he did not spare himself in 

the least. He had attempted to excuse him- 
270 


READJVSTMEl^TS 


271 


self to Margin and again to Alma; but with 
himself he was merciless. The nobility of 
his soul, the true Harvey within him, ar- 
raigned the false Harvey at the bar of in- 
exorable honesty and justice. In whimsical 
irony of fate, his legally trained mind ar- 
gued the case pro and con, and as a stern 
judge passed sentence upon the fairly con- 
victed prisoner. From the ashes of humili- 
ation and defeat, Harvey St. Clair rose up 
a new man. 

His first and fixed resolve was to put 
away forever every lingering feeling of love 
for either Margie or Alma. Margie’s mar- 
riage had made such thoughts unlawful, 
and Alma’s unequivocal refusal had ren- 
dered them impossible of realization, and 
therefore unprofitable. 

I will devote heart and soul to my pro- 
fession. I will make myself such a man, 
and win such a place in legal ranks, as to 
secure their admiration and respect. I will 
be true to my belief, and he what I will to 
be,” he told himself. 


272 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

He plunged feverishly into business, and 
before many months had passed, he won for 
himself the recognition of his fellow-law- 
yers in the city. 

To Margie he was scrupulously and un- 
failingly friendly. She had dreaded the 
frequent meetings with him which his part- 
nership with her husband would render 
necessary, fearing that he would always 
hold a feeling of resentment toward her. 
She was wonderfully relieved, therefore, by 
the sincere and manly friendship which he 
showed to both Walter and herself. His 
true nobility of character developed rap- 
idly, and once more Margie was proud to 
recognize him as her brother-friend.’’ 

But in spite of all this change, her anx- 
ious eyes saw that one fatal flaw remained 
in Harvey’s character. He still cherished 
his skeptical views, and held himself suffi- 
cient unto himself. The subject of religion 
was one which he invariably avoided with 
consummate skill when in the company of 
these most intimate friends. That his be- 


READJVSTMEl^TS 


273 


lief had not changed was evident from the 
fact that the principal occult magazines 
of the day were always to be found upon 
his desk. He rarely ever attended religious 
services; and Sabbath was only Sunday to 
him. 

Yet if Margie and Alma had but known 
it, their positive stand for Christian prin- 
ciples had left an impression upon this 
young man’s mind that could not be effaced. 
Their quiet, consistent, happy lives were 
constant proofs of the desirability of the 
religion of Jesus Christ, and continual re- 
minders of the wall of division that existed 
between Harvey and themselves. Under- 
neath all his seeming calmness and fixed- 
ness of opinion, there was a surging sea of 
unrest. The waves of conscience lashed 
against the levees of human sophistry, and 
at times threatened to demolish all the care- 
fully constructed line of defense which he 
had raised between his soul and the ocean 
of eternal Truth. He could not forget Mar- 
gie’s stinging rebuke when he had at- 


274 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

tempted to define liis position to her. Like 
a ringing challenge her words repeated 
themselves in his brain : 

How can one who has no personal 
knowledge of Christianity pass judgment 
upon its vital points? You are not compe- 
tent to judge what you do not understand.” 
Her logic was unanswerable from a legal 
standpoint. What a lawyer she would 
make,” he said to himself. If a jury 
would but grant her one premise, she would 
carry the conclusion by acclamation.” 

He was lounging in his easy-chair one 
rainy Sabbath afternoon. He had been 
reading a magazine article that treated of 
Biblical errors, and ridiculed those whose 
minds were darkened by senseless supersti- 
tions and foolish fables.” The alliteration 
caught his attention, and kept repeating it- 
self in his mind after he had tossed the 
magazine aside. 

A sudden idea struck him. Time was 
hanging heavy on his hands, so he would 
search out for himself these absurdities of 


BEADJVSTMEl^TS 


275 


which his favorite editor had written, and 
satisfy himself more fully by being able to 
substantiate opinion with knowledge. He 
would also be able to relieve himself of the 
uncomfortable impression which Margie^s 
accusation of ignorance had made upon 
him. If there was anything in the world 
that galled Harvey St. Clair, it was to be 
thought ignorant on any subject on which 
he had the opportunity to be well-informed. 
So now it would be very satisfying to be 
able to say to Margie : I have examined 
thoroughly into these things and searched 
the Bible for myself. These glaring errors 
and fatal contradictions do exist in it, and 
I can point them out to you if you so de- 
sire.” 

Seized by this inspiration, he went to his 
trunk, and from the very bottom of it drew 
out his mother^s Bible. It was an unfor- 
tunate thing for his skepticism that this 
was the only Bible he possessed. An air of 
sanctity seemed to exhale from the well- 
worn volume. He felt as if he had suddenly 


276 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

stepped into his mother’s presence and met 
the gaze of her loving, searching eyes. 

A flood of long-forgotten memories 
surged over him, a strange home-sickness 
tugged at his heart, and a boyish tear sud- 
denly splashed upon the cover of The Book. 
Once more he sat at his mother’s knee, as 
he had been wont to do every Sabbath after- 
noon, and read verse about ” with her 
through one of the Psalms of David, and 
then through a chapter of the New Testa- 
ment. It was long before he could bring 
himself to open The Book. When he did so, 
it opened at the mark which her hands had 
placed in it. How well he remembered the 
little brown ribbon with its inwoven sprays 
of flowers. It had always marked her 
place ” of reading ; so this was evidently the 
last passage that had met her eyes and com- 
forted her widowed heart. There were pen- 
cil marks along the margins, and under 
some of the lines, telling him of the 
thoughts that had been passing through her 
mind as she read. 


READJUSTMENTS 


277 


When he had sufficiently conquered his 
emotion, he began to read; and these were 
the words that met his eyes: 

There is, therefore, now no condemna- 
tion to them who are in Christ Jesus, who 
walk not after the flesh, but after the 
Spirit.'' 

Slowly he read verse after verse until he 
had flnished that favorite chapter with 
saints " — the Eighth of Komans. The 

therefore " in the opening sentence had 
caught his attention. This is the conclu- 
sion," he told himself. I wonder what the 
premises of the argument are." 

He turned back a chapter, then another, 
and. Anally beginning at the flrst of the 
book, he read entirely through that wonder- 
ful argument made by Lawyer Paul to the 
scholars of Rome. Twilight was falling 
when he closed The Book and leaned back 
in his chair to meditate upon what he had 
read. 

His magazine article had ridiculed the 
Bible as a book which sets up a lot of 


278 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT VP 

murderers, idolaters, and polygamists as 
the chosen ones of God, and as patterns by 
which the people of this enlightened Twen- 
tieth Century are to shape their beliefs and 
model their lives.” 

In answer to this charge he had read 
PauPs arraignment of these very charac- 
ters, and his ringing declaration : 

And thinkest thou this, O man, that 
judgest them that do such things, and doest 
the same, that thou shalt escape the judg- 
ment of God? ” 

He had followed the argument, which 
went on to show the insufficiency of the 
Law, and the necessity for a Kedeemer from 
sin, and of a Fountain of Cleansing for 
mankind. 

There was a force, a dignity, a flaw- 
less logic in PauPs argument, that con- 
trasted strongly with the weak vituperation 
of the magazine article, and caused the lat- 
ter to become an antidote to itself. He 
shook himself impatiently as he realized 
how his thoughts were drifting; and plac- 


READJUSTMENTS 


279 


ing The Book carefully upon his table, he 
went out to walk off the uneasiness that 
had taken hold upon him. 

The rain had ceased, and the freshness 
and the calmness of a starlit night had set- 
tled over the world. Crowds of people were 
upon the streets; some going to church, 
some to the Sunday theaters or the beer 
gardens, some out like himself for an aim- 
less walk. His uncomfortable thoughts 
were still with him. Struck by an unac- 
countable impulse, he stopi>ed at a corner 
which seemed to be a parting in the 
ways ” of the stream of humanity. 

In one direction went the stream of 
pleasure-seekers, to the other hand turnel 
the feet of the church-goers. Standing in 
the shadow at the corner, Harvey studied 
the faces, the manners, the voices, the 
words of the people who passed him. One 
throng feared not God, neither regarded 
man ” ; the other throng Vas following the 
lead of a Bible of impurity and ignorant 
superstition, and a God who was a myth.” 


280 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

How did these two streams of humanity 
compare? 

According to his belief, the ignorance, the 
impurity, the unhappiness, the vice must 
necessarily belong to those who followed a 
Bible of immorality and licentiousness ; 
while truth and purity walked the other 
road. But alas ! for the logic of his posi- 
tion, the happy peaceful faces, the sweet- 
est tones — free from unrest and ill-temper 
— the kindest manners, the truest words, 
belonged to those whom he was seeking to 
despise. 

As a lawyer, he had met many of the 
worst criminals of the city, and had stud- 
ied the pictured faces in the rogues^ gal- 
lery.^’ Now, as he watched, some of these 
court-house acquaintances passed him, and 
his eye scanned many faces which he 
deemed worthy of a place in the gallery of 
vice; and not one of these followed the feet 
of the tcorshipers! 

On which side, then, was the delusion? 
Where was Truth? What was Truth? 


READJUSTMENTS 


281 


He turned hastily away, and walking 
back to his room, sought to drown his un- 
easiness in sleep; but unconsciousness re- 
fused to come to his relief. Truth and error 
had arrayed themselves to battle. On one 
side were his mother, the church-goers, the 
Bible; on the other were the criminals, 
the pleasure-seekers, skepticism, and him- 
self. 

On which side was Truth? He could not 
deny the evidences of Christianity as dis- 
played in the lives of his mother, Margie, 
and Alma. He could not reject the testi- 
mony of the faces, the voices, the words of 
the church-goers. Nor could he find ex- 
cuses in his belief sufficient to cover the 
impressive witnessing of the vicious, the li- 
centious, the careless, the Godless ones on 
the other side. 

Paul had out-argued the magazine: the 
Christians had surpassed the godless; his 
mother’s belief had given the lie to his own ; 
and skepticism stood convicted before The 
Judge of the quick and the dead.” 


282 THE GIRL WHO KEPT VP 

When morning dawned, its light fell up- 
on a young man whose face was already il- 
lumined by the rays of The Sun of Kight- 
eousness. And that young man was Har- 
vey St. Clair. 


CHAPTER XX 


GATHERED THREADS 

Shortly after Walter and Margie were 
married, the large fortune of Mr. Brooks, 
Sr., was swept away in a bank failure. 
Through Walter^s efforts the beautiful 
home at The Beeches was saved from the 
general wreck, and although luxury had to 
be dispensed with, enough money was left 
to keep his parents in comfort. 

With characteristic independence, Bessie 
and Alma at once sought for employment 
by which they might support themselves. 
In a short time Alma obtained a position as 
music teacher in one of the private schools 
of the city, and Bessie became a member of 
the faculty of a college in another State. 
Time flies swiftly for those whose lives are 
fllled with duties, whose minds are busied 
with congenial thoughts, whose hearts are 

reaching forward to a desired goal. And so 
283 


284 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

the weeks and months passed by, and with 
a year of successful work behind them, the 
girls entered upon their well-earned vaca- 
tion. 

A few days after her return, Bessie was 
visiting at the home of her brother Walter; 
and while she and Margie busied them- 
selves with their needlework, they con- 
versed of the many changes that had taken 
place during Bessie’s absence from the city. 
Among the persons mentioned was Harvey 
St. Clair. With much animation Margie 
told of his recent conversion, and the 
change it had wrought in him. 

A change of mind and heart so radical 
as that which he has experienced, is bound 
to change him in many ways. He is less the 
man of the world, and more the Harvey 
whom I knew in childhood. That sounds 
strange to you, no doubt, but I know so well 
the sterling qualities of his mind and char- 
acter, and can realize as no one else can, of 
how much he is capable, now that his cyni- 
cism and skepticism have been overcome. 


GATHERED THREADS 285 

And this is merely limiting the case to 
himself alone. If we consider his influence 
upon others, the gain is beyond computa- 
tion.” 

Margie^s face glowed with the enthusi- 
asm which her favorite subject of personal 
influence always awakened in her. Bess 
looked a little skeptical. 

You count a great deal upon one’s per- 
sonal influence. I wish I could be as sure 
concerning it; but I am not positive that 
I have ever influenced anyone, either for 
good or evil. My life has counted but very 
little. So far as I can see, it has all been 
lived for myself, with very little reference 
to other people. It is not a very creditable 
admission, but then, someway, one can- 
not help but be candid when talking with 
you.” 

Which is only a proof of personal in- 
fluence,” interjected Margie smilingly. 

That is true — of you. But what of my- 
self? Can you prove your point by any- 
thing I ever said or did? Perhaps I should 


286 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

be less skeptical if I knew of a single in- 
stance in which I figured.” 

Margie hesitated for a moment, then an- 
swered slowly: 

“ Years ago, when I was only an ignorant 
backwoods girl, I heard of a girl whose en- 
ergy and brilliancy were spurs to her class- 
mates ; and the story of her personal 
infiuence over them urged me forward to 
more earnest efforts. It changed my whole 
life, and brought me where I now am. Do 
you call that a small amount of influence 
for one person to exert over another — with- 
out even personal contact? ” 

The effect of this speech on Bess was 
magical. 

Did I do all that? ” she cried with 
flashing eyes. Then the blood slowly 
mounted over cheek and brow. She left 
her chair, and dropped down on the hassock 
at Margie’s feet. 

My dear sister,” she said with evident 
effort, it is a rather late date to confess 
some of my sins; but there is one that has 



“ There is one that has haunted me all these years.” 

Page 286 . 





















.-r^ -. -w# ^1 V 



m ^ 


( ^ 




.V i 


-V-- t^-<^'‘^- - ^ ', \ , 

k ■■ ' a-s-,' - "‘ * ^*> i *T- 

^ f -s,;.! • -^1 . '^ ♦ • , , • - ■< 


I 

*£ 


r3 


r- 









GATHERED THREADS 


287 


haunted me all these years, and I am going 
to tell you of it — even though you despise 
me for it. You have spoken of my in- 
fluence, primarily over Harvey St. Clair, 
and secondarily over yourself. Did you 
ever guess that I deliberately sought to 
draw his affections away from you, simply 
that I might add another name to the al- 
ready long list of my ‘ victims ’ ? It seemed 
a very small thing to me then — only a legit- 
imate part of the ^ fun ’ of college life ; but 
I see now how it separated two friends and 
changed two lives. It has all worked out 
well, so far as you are concerned — at least, 
you appear to be happy, and to hold no re- 
grets for what might have been. Still, I 
can take no credit to myself for the good 
that has befallen you. That came only 
through others. As for Harvey, I am quite 
sure the effect has been disastrous. I cut 
the cable that bound him to happiness, and 
he has been adrift ever since. 

“ The worst of it is, that this is only one 
instance of my baleful influence. Oh, Mar- 


288 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

gie, why did you make me see it so plainly? 
I wonder whether all my foolish flirtations 
have gone out in such lasting, widening cir- 
cles. I wonder whether they have all car- 
ried as much misery to others. Oh, Mar- 
gie — oh, Margie — what can I do to undo all 
that I have done? The girl ended with 
a sob of dismay. 

I did not intend to distress you, dear, 
nor to reproach you,” said Margie tenderly. 

I was only considering the mental stim- 
ulus you were to Harvey and myself when 
I spoke, and I am sorry that I reminded 
you of more unpleasant influences. It 
would be useless for me to deny that you 
caused me great unhappiness for a time; 
but remember, dear, that this same unhappi- 
ness caused me to redouble my forward ef- 
forts. I am very happy now, and I believe 
that Harvey no longer holds any regrets. 
Nevertheless, the stubborn fact of your in- 
fluence remains, to prove that even a school- 
girl’s ‘ fun ’ reaches into eternity.” 


GATHERED THREADS 289 

A little silence fell between them, which 
was presently broken by Bess. 

“ How you must have hated me,” she said 
indignantly. Your mere story makes me 
hate myself; then what must the reality 
have been.” 

No, dear. You are unnecessarily bit- 
ter. I do not deny the pain you thought- 
lessly caused me; but I want you to look 
beyond it. When my father died and the 
way to an education was opened before me, 
I said to myself : ^ This is what I lack. 

This is what Harvey missed. This is what 
made the difference between Bessie Brooks 
and me.’ I determined to study the people, 
the manners and customs of the world in 
which you had been brought up, and to 
make myself as much like Harvey had de- 
scribed you, as it was possible for me to be. 
You had become my unseen, unknown ideal 
of perfect girlhood. So, all unwittingly, 
your influence reached into the backwoods 
where you had never been, and helped a 


290 THE GIRL WHO KEPT VP 

girl whom you had never seen. Do you 
call that influence nothing? 

Yes, I know — I know, of course it is all 
true, or you would not tell it to me. But, 
oh, Margie, the wrong I did you by my fool- 
ish thoughtlessness outweighs the good my 
example may have done for you. I do not 
see how you could ever forgive me.” 

There were tears in Bessie^s eyes as she 
spoke; for she had at last come to real- 
ize what a mountain had grown out of 
what she had once jestingly called a 
molehill.” 

Margie smiled down into the distressed 
face at her knee : 

My dear sister,” she said, do you 
think I appear at all unhappy? Do you 
consider Harvey St. Clair so far superior 
to your brother Walter that you have to 
grieve because I married the latter instead 
of my youthful lover? I assure you that 
every atom of pain disappeared long ago, 
and that I have not even a lingering regret 
for possible ‘ might-have-beens.^ No doubt, 


GATHERED THREADS 


291 


if I had married Harvey, I should have con- 
sidered myself the happiest of women, and 
should have looked with pity upon the rest 
of womankind who had been so unfortunate 
as to have to marry someone else. As it is, 
I am glad that affairs have turned out just 
as they have, and that I am placed just 
where I am. You see, love makes all the 
difference in the world. You will find that 
out for yourself some day.” 

Well then, I shall waste no more tears 
upon you,” said Bess laughingly. But 
how about Harvey?” 

“ Wait until you see him,” answered Mar- 
gie wisely. “ I feel quite sure that you will 
find he treasures no regrets on the subject. 
He at least is going forward to new heights 
of living, and his new joy seems to have 
swept all unpleasant things from his mind 
and soul.” 

That same evening quite a number of per- 
sons called to watch the opening of a nights 
blooming cereus which formed one of the 
attractions of Margie’s little conservatory. 


292 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

There was breathless interest as the pale 
yellow sepals gradually separated, the 
snowy petals trembled apart, and revealed 
the golden heart with its ivory stamens and 
pistils. The members of the company took 
turns in peering into the depths of the 
strange blossom, and exclaiming over its 
beauty. 

What a curious flower it is ! ” Bess said 
to Harvey, who was standing near her. 
“ Why was it made? Can you imagine why 
God should decree that such wonderful 
beauty should open only at night and die 
before day? And then the years of slow 
growth that the plant requires before it can 
send out one blossom — does it not seem al- 
most like lost time? ” 

It is like some characters,” Harvey 
made answer. “ They are not attractive to 
those about them, perhaps, and give no 
promise of extraordinary worth, yet all at 
once the slow growth of years blossoms out 
into wondrous beauty.” 

I wish that my life might blossom out 


GATHERED THREADS 293 

that way,” said the girl, half to herself. 
Harvey looked at her curiously. 

What is there about your life to make 
you dissatisfied with it?” 

How can you, who know me so well, ask 
such a question? Have I any reason to ex- 
pect to hear ^ Well done, thou good and 
faithful servant’? My life, until this last 
year, was spent in frivolity and selfishness ; 
and I fear an eternity would be required to 
counterbalance its evil effects.” 

And this last year? ” 

Has been given to the Lord ; but I seem 
to have accomplished very little.” 

Are you willing to give up on that ac- 
count? ” he asked. 

“ Oh, no ! ” she exclaimed with hashing 
eyes. “ Even though I never see any fruit 
I shall keep on trying. Perhaps after pa- 
tient years the blossoming will come. I 
will remember the cereus, and wait.” 

Just then Walter called them to come 
and behold the perfect blossom before its 
fair petals began to droop and die. 


294 THE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

Afterwards, Harvey found opportunity 
for another little chat with Bess. 

‘^How have you enjoyed yo,ur work this 
past year? ” he asked. “ Have you found 
your niche in the world? ’’ 

“ No,’’ was the smiling answer. “ Either 
teaching is not my ‘ sphere,’ or else I do not 
aecept it as such. How is one to know 
when she has found the work which God in- 
tends for her to do? It would save a deal 
of needless work and worry, if one could 
know to a certainty the place where she be- 
longs.” 

“ And be willing to fill it after it was 
found,” Harvey added. 

“ Perhaps that is where the trouble lies,” 
returned Bess thoughtfully. We pray 
‘ Thy will be done,’ and immediately under- 
take to do things our own way. Is not that 
the source of our troubles?” 

Undoubtedly it is the cause of many of 
them. It is only an instance of human in- 
consistency. In cases of physical weak- 
ness or mental incapacity, we go to the 


GATHERED THREADS 295 

physician or the scientist who is better 
learned than we, and follow his directions 
without question. But when it comes to 
ordering our lives, or settling spiritual 
questions, we set our finiteness above God^s 
infinity, and our ignorance beyond his om- 
niscience, and then wonder at our failures. 
We ‘measure ourselves by ourselves, and 
are not wise.’ ” 

“ I see how it is,” said Bess, “ and I am 
going to take your little sermon to myself. 
Henceforward, I shall look upon teaching 
as the thing which God has given me to do 
noWy and I shall try to do it as nearly like I 
think he would like to have it done, as I 
possibly can. Perhaps it will not seem 
so disagreeable if I look upon it thus, and 
perhaps in time I shall come to love it — who 
knows? ” 

Rest assured of one thing,” Harvey 
said gravely. “ If you place yourself unre- 
servedly in God’s hands, if this is not the 
place he intends for you to fill, he will 
soon show you what he would have you do. 


296 THE GIRL WHO KEPT VP 

That is a lesson I have but recently learned, 
and it accounts for the wasted years of my 
life.’’ 

^‘Are wasted years always lost years?” 
the girl asked. 

“ If we allow the lessons taught by our 
disappointments and failures and sins to 
influence and ennoble our after lives, the 
time is not entirely lost.” 

But oh, how much there is to regret ! ” 
sighed Bessie. 

No, no,” replied Harvey quickly. We 
cannot redeem lost time by wasting present 
time in useless regrets. We cannot cer- 
tainly know how much of it is truly lost, 
until we can look upon it from God’s stand- 
point. The only thing for us to do is to 
leave past years in God’s hands to do with 
as he will, and to give our undivided atten- 
tion to making the very best we can out of 
the present moment.” 

What a beautiful life that would make. 
I am only beginning to realize how much 
good can be crowded into one’s lifetime, and 


GATHERED THREADS 297 

what wonderful possibilities lie before each 
one of us.” 

Yes,” Harvey replied, there is much 
for which we should be thankful.” 

Bess wondered whether that reply cov- 
ered any of the questions which she and 
Margie had discussed, and longed to ask 
him whether he carried any regrets for his 
past disappointments. She adroitly led 
the conversation around to refer to his 
early life, which necessarily led him to 
speak of Margie. While he spoke freely 
and with animation of those early years, 
she detected an undertone of sadness in his 
voice, and drew her own conclusions. How 
was she to know that the sadness was 
caused by remorse for his own unkindness, 
rather than because of his loss of the girl 
he had once loved? 

He is unhappy, and I am the cause. 
Oh, what can I do to atone for my folly,” 
she thought. 

After he had bidden her good-night and 
gone away, she sat down in the silent par- 


298 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT UP 

lors and wasted a great deal of present 
time in useless regrets for the past.’’ She 
would have laughed at her own folly if she 
could have followed Harvey down the street, 
have noted his brisk step, and heard his 
cheery whistle. Still more would she have 
been surprised if she could have read his 
thoughts, which ran in this wise: 

What a change has come over the girl ! 
She has found the One Thing Needful to 
make of her a noble woman. And yet — not 
so very long ago — I called religion a super- 
stition, and deemed man sufficient unto 
himself! How blind, how ignorant, I 
was! ” 

The principal of the Walnut Hills Insti- 
tute was a man of fine mental and moral 
caliber, and possessed uncommon ability 
and attainments. During the year which 
Alma spent as a member of his faculty, a 
strong friendship grew up between them, 
which ripened rapidly into a feeling, 
warmer, deeper, and more absorbing. Mar- 
gie watched the gradual development of 


GATHERED THREADS 


299 


this romance, and looked anxiously for its 
effect on Harvey. She had all along cher- 
ished a secret hope that Harvey and Alma 
might some day renew the friendship which 
she herself had sundered and carry it 
on to a full fruition of love and happiness. 
Now that this stranger had come in and 
appeared about to destroy her sweet little 
hope, she watched this growing love with 
a bitter feeling of jealousy for her brother- 
friend. Must Harvey lose all the sweet- 
ness from life? Must all love be denied 
him? Because of youthful mistakes, must 
he be condemned to go through life alone? 

Despair filled her heart when Alma shyly 
whispered to her of the love she had ac- 
cepted, and of the heart she had given in 
return. She put aside all thought of Har- 
vey, for the time being, and was as cordial 
as Alma could desire, expressing a just 
admiration for Professor Alden. But in 
the solitude of her own room she shed tears 
of sympathy for Harvey in this new and — 
supposedly — bitter trial. 


300 TEE GIRL WHO KEPT VP 

To her surprise, when the engagement of 
Alma and Professor Alden was announced, 
the object of her sisterly solicitude seemed 
utterly oblivious to his irreparable loss. 
Instead of being overcome, he was so deeply 
engrossed in some of Bessie’s remarks, and 
looked at her with such unmistakable ad- 
miration in his gaze, that Margie’s eyes 
were opened to an unexpected state of 
affairs. 

In attempting to atone for the wrong she 
had done him in their college days, Bess 
had become so sweetly sympathetic, so 
watchful for chances to aid and encourage 
him, so forgetful of self and so thoughtful 
for him, that Harvey’s heart had turned 
again to the fascination of his college 
days, and his admiration had increased in 
proportion to the growth that had come to 
both Bess and himself in the years that 
had been given them. Both had put away 
the mistakes and follies of their youth, and 
both were striving for the same reward — 
the Well done ” of the Heavenly Master. 


GATHERED THREADS 


301 


Both found their highest joy in earnest 
Christian work. Each found in the other 
the necessary complement in character and 
disposition. 

And Margie, looking on with eager eyes, 
and a heart full of love for both, felt that 
at last Harvey had found the love and hap- 
piness which he had so long delayed and 
so nearly lost; and that Bess, after these 
years, had proved herself worthy of a love 
which she had once cast aside. 

Far away in quiet Sharon the tall Lom- 
bardy poplars whispered to the breezes and 
dropped golden tears upon the grass-grown 
lane ; but the lovers who had once lingered 
along the narrow pathway, walked afar the 
highway of life, separated in earthly loves 
and interests, but one in faith and hope of 
a Heavenly Country where change, and 
disappointment, and separation, and sor- 
row are forever unknown. 



BRAVE HEART SERIES 

By ADELE E. THOMPSON 


Betty Seldon, Patriot 

Illustrated by Lilian Crawford True 
i2mo Cloth 300 pages $1.25 

I T is a great deal to say of a book that it is 
at the same time fascinating and noble. 
That is what “Betty Seldon, Patriot” is. 
Historical events are accurately traced leading 
up to the surrender of Cornwallis at York- 
town, with reunion and happiness for all who 
deserve it. Betty is worth a thousand of the 
fickle coquette heroines of some latter day 
popular novels. 


Brave Heart Elizabeth 




i2mo Cloth Illustrated by Lilian Craw- 
ford True $i, net 

T his is a book for older girls, and in 
strength ranks with the best fiction of 
the year. It is a story of the making of the 
Ohio frontier, much of it taken from life, 
and the heroine one of the famous Zane 
family after which Zanesville, O., takes its 
name. As an accurate, pleasing, and yet at 
times intensely thrilling picture of the stir- 
ring period of border settlement, and the 
hardy folk, whose familiarity with danger 
taught a surprising ability to enjoy the bright- 
er side withal, this book surpasses all recent 
writings of its kind. 


Ready September 7, jgoy 

A Lassie of the Isles $i,net 


LEE AND SHEPARD BOSTON 


We Four Girls 



By Mary G. Darling i2mo Cloth Il- 
lustrated by Bertha G. Davidson* 
$1.25 

“ TT rE FOUR GIRLS” is a bright 
V V story of a summer vacation in the 
country, where these girls were sent for 
study and recreation. The stcry has plenty 
of natural incidents; and a mild romance, 
in which they are all interested, and of 
which their teacher is the principal person, 
gives interest to the tale. They thought it 
the most delightful summer they ever^^passed. 
Every girl reader will wish that she could have 
as beautiful a vacation, and any mother may 
be happy to place such a book in her daugh- 
ter’s hands. 


A Girl of this Century 

By Mary G. Darling Author of “We 
Four Girls ” Cloth Illustrated by Lil- 
ian Crawford True $i, net 

W E FOUR GIRLS” at once took 
its place among the very best 
books for older girls, and has been in con- 
tinual demand since its publication. The 
same characters are retained in this story, 
the interest centring around “Marjorie,” the 
natural leader of the four. She has a brilliant 
course at Radcliffe, and then comes the 
world. A romance, long resisted, but worthy 
in nature and of happy termination, crowns 
this singularly well-drawn life of the noblest 
of all princesses — a true American girl. 



Beck’s Fortune A Story of School and Seminary Life 

By Adele E. Thompson Cloth Illustrated $1.25 

T he characters in this book seem to live, their remarks are bright and 
natural, and the incidental humor delightful. The account of Beck’s 
narrow and cheerless early life, her sprightly independence, and unexpected 
competency that aids her to progress through the medium of seminary life 
to noble womanhood, is one that mothers can commend to their daughters 
unreservedly. 


LEE AND SHEPARD BOSTON 




The Quinnebasset Series 

By Sophie May Cloth Illustrated Price per 
volume $1.25 Sets in neat box Any volume 
sold separately 


“ COPHIE MAY” writes with a remarkable in- 
sight into the thought and life of girls, and 
shows an unaffected sympathy in the perplexities, 
aspirations, and disappointments of their experience. 


Our Helen 
In Old Quinnebasset 
Janet : A Poor Heiress 
Quinnebasset Girls 
The Asbury Twins 
The Doctor’s Daughter 


Pauline Wyman 

By Sophie May Cloth Illustrated $1.25 

TN ” Pauline Wyman ” the author has drawn a typical New England girl whose 
^ strong and beautiful character is developed by her environment, — all told with 
the same originality and freshness which have drawn a multitude of young people 
to the authors previous work in the “Quinnebasset Series.” 


Ready September /, jgo^ 

Joy Bells A Quinnebasset Story 

By Sophie May $i, net 


Almost as Good as a Boy 

By Amanda M. Douglas Author of the 
“ Kathie Stories ” etc. Cloth Illustrated 
by Bertha G. Davidson $1.25 

M ISS DOUGLAS tells how a girl accom- 
plishes her various undertakings in a 
most successful way, and proves that her 
ability is at least equal to what might be 
reasonably expected of a boy, under similar 
circumstances. It is a charming and a helpful 
story that has proved a general favorite. 


Ready September 7, jgoj 

Helen Grant’s School Days 

By Amanda M. Douglas $i, net 



LEE AND SHEPARD BOSTON 


THE RANDY BOOKS 

By AMY BROOllS 

i2mo Cloth Artistic cover design in Gold 
and Colors Each finely illustrated by the 
author 

T he progress of the “Randy Books ” has 
been one continual triumph over the 
hearts of girls of all ages, for dear little fun- 
loving sister Prue is almost as much a central 
figure as Randy, growing toward womanhood 
with each book. The sterling good sense and 
simple naturalness of Randy, and the total 
absence of slang and viciousness, make these 
books in the highest degree commendable, 
while abundant life is supplied by the doings 
of merry friends, and there is rich humor in 
the droll rural characters. No book is more 
anxiously awaited or eagerly called for long 
in advance than a promised new “Randy Book,” 

Randy’s Summer $i.oo 

Randy’s Winter $i.oo 

Randy and Her Friends $.80, net 

Randy and Prue $.80, net {Ready September 7, igoj) 


Madge a Girl in Earnest 

By S. Jennie Smith i2mo Cloth Illus- 
trated by James E. McBurney $i,net 

M adge is indeed “ a girl in earnest.” 

She scorns the patronage of an aris- 
tocratic relative and takes upon her strong 
young shoulders the problem of carrying 
along the family in an independent manner. 

Her bravely won success, in spite of the 
lions in her path, not the least of which was 
the fear of social disfavor felt by some of 
her family, forms an inspiring tale. An un- 
usual amount of practical information is pre- 
sented in a thoroughly entertaining manner, 
and the character-drawing is remarkably true 
and strong. 


LEE AND SHEPARD BOSTON 




LITTLE BETTY BLEW 

Her Strange Experiences and Adventures 
in Indian Land 

BY ANNIE M, BARNES 

Illustrated by Frank T. Merrill i2mo Cloth with gold and 
colors 300 pages Price $1.00, net Postpaid, $1.10 

O NE of the very best books with 
which to satisfy a young reader’s 
natural desire for an “ Indian story ” 
is this one of little Betty Blew and 
what she saw and experienced when 
her family removed from Dorchester, 
Mass., two hundred years ago, to 
their home on the Ashley River above 
Charleston, South Carolina. Although 
Betty is but a small maid she is so 
wise and true that she charms all, and 
there are a number of characters who 
will interest boys as well as girls, and 
old as well as young. 

There are many Indians who figure most importantly in many 
exciting scenes, but the book, though a splendid “ Indian story,” 
is far more than that. It is an unusually entertaining tale of the 
making of a portion of our country, with plenty of information 
as well as incident to commend it, and the account of a delight- 
ful family life in the brave old times. It is good to notice that 
this story is to be the first of a colonial series, which will surely 
be a favorite with children and their parents. Mr. Merrill’s 
illustrations are of unusual excellence, even for that gifted artist, 
and the binding is rich and beautiful. 


For sale by all booksellers^ or sent prepaid on receipt of price 
and postage^ by the publishers 

LEE AND SHEPARD BOSTON 



AMERICAN GIRLS’ SERIES 

Standard Copyright Books for Qirls by American Authors 

Thirty-five titles Each complete in itself. Uni- 
form cloth binding New cover design Price per 
volume $1.00 

1. Battles at Home By Mary G. Darling 

2. Captain Molly By Mary A. Denison 

3. Daisy Travers By Adelaide F. Samuels 

4. Deerings of riedbury, The By Vir- 

ginia F. Townsend 

5. Her Friend’s Lover By Sophie May 

6. Hollands, The By Virginia F. Tow '- 

send 

7. In Trust By Amanda M. Douglas 
S. In the World By Mary G. Darling 
9. Into the Light By C. G. O. 

10. It Came to Pass By Mary Farley Sanborn 

11. Lottie Fames By Adelaide F. Samuels 

12. May Martin and Other Tales of the Green Mountains By 

Judge D. P. Thompson 

13. Mills of Tuxbury By Virginia F. Townsend 

14. Nellie Kinnard’s Kingdom By Amanda M. Douglas 

15. Pretty Lucy Merwyn By Mary Lakeman 

16. Rhoda Thornton’s Girlhood By Mary E. Pratt 

17. Room for One More By Mrs. T. W. Higginson 

18. Ruby Duke, A Story of Boarding School Life By Mrs. H. K. 

Potwin 

19. Ruth Eliot’s Dream By Mary Lakeman 

20. Seven Daughters By Amanda M. Douglas 

21. Six in All By Virginia F. Townsend 

22. Sweet and Twenty By Mary Farley Sanborn 

23. Tatters . By Beulah 

24. Which, Right or Wrong? By Mary L. Moreland 

25. Whom Kathie Married By Amanda M. Douglas 

26. An American Girl Abroad By Adeline Trafton 

27. Dorothy’s Experience By Adeline Trafton 

28. Hester Strong’s Life Work By Mrs. S. A. Southworth 

29. Hillsboro’ Farms, A Story for Girls By Sophia Dickinson Cobb 

30. Sally Williams the Mountain Girl By Mrs. E. D. Cheney 

31. ’Lisbeth Wilson: A Daughter of New Hampshire Hills 

By Eliza Nelson Blair 

32. Running to Waste By George M. Baker 

33. Barbara Thayer : Her Glorious Career By Annie Jenness Millet 

34. Katherine Earle By Adeline Trafton 

35. In the King’s Country By Amanda M. Douglas 



LEE AND SHEPARD Publishers BOSTON 





















% 



JUNi IS 1903 


’4 






• V h 


• ’ i 


y\ 


n V 


>Tv.b 


m 






> 






* 4 JL 


i . » 


I 












i ’ 


»' A k' ’r. 








u:. 




V. - 1 


J .‘k: 


» * 


«, %* 


M. 


s-i'. >•’ 


/ . » 


Of.-'Tj 


‘iv 




* VPj» 




•Wi 


•'Wl 


r>w 


i rrj; 






• » 




y '7 %4, 


i • 


•>* 


« j 


( 


I . 


‘ff 


>4^ 




t .* 


/ /, 


*u 






'^■ 


::.1 






^•vV V 


■ i 


V"^ 


’'f'i 


— 4 I 




to 


a 


I .- 


/ ‘ 


<i 


it 


If V' 




' - » 

•i • 




:;v/ 


: h 




.V 






'■>^j 


mm 






•r «- 








»* 7 < 




>vCS-!h v> 




•r iT j 




i •.> 






I 




'i.'i;*/' 




l?-V’.-i 


S ■« 


•■>'- ■ !*J 


W“'j’ 


Ll 1. 


i'MA 


>r I 


.(tii’-'S 


',v.‘ • 


'i 


t'fi 


t • \ 


t . '■ 




■|" . I. J r 


a 


'L niN. 


*:4 




r.” .1 


5;\. 


I 1 • » 


-iJ 




to * f 






Jl 


i 


•V 










V. 


y 


|i 4 «» 


.•4-. 








.•t 


‘’v ,Vi!Jt’‘ r'l'iT' ' 'TT^'*’ I 

/ \ * > . - v J ^ 


« I 


. «•• V ^ ij ^ ‘' : 




1'/ , •' 


»• 




4 L 


• f 


■ '( s 




7,» 


V-‘A- 








»!■/ 


V; 




./ 


r V ‘ •> 

- V. TaA». -, 






■.w 


.4' 




S\ 


;:■ 


:v 








% 


‘ V 


Jf .. • « ». • I* 4 . ' J‘’‘< 

D » ■ * I A ^ ; 1*. » I , • 

■• , .-.lW. - Vfj. 


Vi.‘ 


I f 


kjV? 


'tl‘ 




> t Vi 










iXv 


<iy*S^ V 




sv 






ri>. 


A#.’ 


'•/*. < 






• j 




^^'>1 






MTvi k‘ 


•/.i; 


y 


.4 » 






V'v / 



■( 




4 < Tl { 


i ■' ,‘ 


’#, \ 




rt; 


*' *r.v 


>:>7 






a’I' 












» y 




» \ -^V 


y 4 » 






W 


^ V' 


''fj 


0 


4 > 4 








?■ N 




I !>>-.? 


t 




rVM 


r 


J.: ' 




’V 


■M 








ri, • 


/jT 


*»\ 


y' ---‘vW, 


_4 f Ifl'i''. ' 


is:-. 


t, I 


tf 


* ■*' 




SmI 


' fiv «I 


9^ 


!V- • 


1i 


rVi 


*L r. 


w 



}^: 


•.»'. '* 


.Vi 


r‘i' 






/:'>y. 


>' .4 


0 


jif /■ .■■.•_ V . 


• .'f'. 


I / » 






'i(>P 


I >iijr*» * 


P> 


/ •(, 




•^ ': y 




;w 




•ki. 


’L Ar. 


^ < L A 





• V* 


V 


>' t 










( 

{ 


i 






